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Client file sharing, rebuilt from the ground up: a private area per client, resumable uploads, folders, groups and categories, sharing with expiry dates and download limits, comments, file versions, an activity log, a REST API, and sixteen languages. This repository begins here. ProjectSend 2 was developed privately, and that development history is not published — the previous generation remains available, with its own history, at projectsend/legacy. Free software under the GNU General Public License v2, or (at your option) any later version.
107 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
# ProjectSend Licensing
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ProjectSend is available under two licenses. Pick whichever fits.
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## 1. GNU GPL v2 — free, for everyone
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The default, and the license ProjectSend has used since 2011. Free of charge, forever, with the
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four freedoms intact: run it, study it, modify it, share it. See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for the full
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text. Formally the grant is "GPLv2, or at your option, any later version" — the "or later"
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option is there because some bundled dependencies (such as the AWS SDK) are Apache-2.0 licensed,
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which combines cleanly with GPLv3 terms but not with GPLv2-only.
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**If you're self-hosting ProjectSend to share files with your own clients, this is you, and there
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is nothing to think about.** Using the software — even commercially, even inside a large company,
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even with paying clients — triggers no obligations. You don't have to publish anything.
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The GPL asks for reciprocity in one situation: **if you distribute a modified version**, you ship
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your changes' source alongside it, under the GPL. Running it on your own server isn't
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distribution.
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## 2. Commercial license — for when the GPL doesn't fit
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Some organizations can't work under copyleft terms. Common cases:
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- You want to **embed** ProjectSend inside a closed-source product you sell.
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- You want to **white-label** it as part of a commercial offering and distribute it to customers
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without publishing your modifications.
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- Your legal or procurement department has a blanket policy against GPL dependencies in shipped
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products.
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- You need **warranties or indemnification**, which no open source license provides.
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A commercial license removes the GPL's source-sharing obligations. It's the same software.
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Contact <contact@projectsend.org> with a short description of what you're building and how you
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plan to distribute it, and we'll come back with terms.
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---
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## What's in the core, and what's in ProjectSend Cloud
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We run [ProjectSend Cloud](https://projectsend.cloud), a hosted version. It has features the
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self-hosted core doesn't. Rather than let you find that out one feature announcement at a time,
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here's the line we draw and the commitments that go with it.
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**The principle:** if a capability makes ProjectSend work for one organization on its own server,
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it belongs in the core. If it only exists because we run installations on other people's behalf,
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it belongs in Cloud.
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| **Always in the free core** | Client accounts and groups · file assignment and expiration · client uploads · download tracking and activity logs · categories and folders · themes and custom branding · two-factor authentication · role-based permissions · S3-compatible storage · public links · translations · the extension API |
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| **Cloud only** | Billing and subscriptions · automated provisioning · managed backups and restore · infrastructure monitoring and uptime SLA · managed email deliverability · cross-organization administration |
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**Our commitments:**
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1. Nothing that is free today will ever move behind a paid tier.
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2. No artificial limits in the self-hosted version — no caps on users, clients, files or storage
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designed to push you toward the hosted plan. Self-hosted ProjectSend is a complete product,
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not a demo.
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3. Cloud features are built on a public extension API. The same API is available to you, so
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anything we can build as a first-party extension, you can build too.
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4. When we add a paid feature, we'll say so plainly in the release notes rather than letting you
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discover it.
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**Where it gets genuinely gray:** enterprise-oriented capabilities like SAML/SSO, advanced audit
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exports, and long-horizon retention policies would work fine self-hosted, and we may build some
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of them for paying customers. We're not going to pretend otherwise. What we won't do is take
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something out of the core to put it there.
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---
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## Frequently asked questions
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**I run ProjectSend on my own server for my clients. Do I owe anything?**
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No. Self-hosting for your own use — including commercial use, including with paying clients —
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carries no obligation. You don't have to publish anything and you don't need a commercial license.
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**I made changes to my installation. Now what?**
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If you're not distributing that modified version to anyone else, nothing. Keep your changes to
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yourself if you want. If you do hand out copies, they come with the source under the GPL. Either
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way, we'd rather you upstream them.
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**Can I resell ProjectSend hosting?**
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Yes. The GPL doesn't stop anyone from offering ProjectSend as a hosted service, including in
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competition with us.
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**Why is there a CLA if the license isn't changing?**
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Two reasons. It's what lets us offer the commercial license described above — without rights to
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every contributor's code, we can't license the whole thing to anyone. And it means we're not
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permanently locked out of ever updating the project's license, which today would require
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tracking down fifteen years of contributors. We have no license change planned. See
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[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for the full reasoning and what we commit to in exchange.
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**Are you going to switch to AGPL / BSL / SSPL?**
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No plans. If that ever changes it'll be proposed publicly and discussed before anything happens,
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not announced after the fact. And in any case, every release published under the GPLv2 stays
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GPLv2 permanently — that can't be revoked and we wouldn't want to.
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**Do I need a commercial license to contribute?**
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No. Contributions are welcome under the GPL. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).
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---
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*Nothing on this page is legal advice. If your situation is complicated, talk to a lawyer — and
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if you tell us what you're trying to do, we'll usually be able to tell you quickly whether you
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need a commercial license or not.*
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