# Ruby Licensing

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 2, 2007, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117 "2007-05-02T00:27:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newcoder1)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117/1 "2007-05-02T00:27:11Z")

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Hi ,  
I have some questions regarding the licensing of Ruby & Ruby On  
Rails . How does the licensing work in the following situations

A) I write a website using Ruby and Rails where i want to charge  
customers for the service  
B) I want to sell software written using Ruby and Rails to a client  
C) I want to modify core Ruby code and/or extensions from what i  
downloaded

In the above cases do i need to give away the software i wrote for  
free (or) am i obligated to publish the  
software i wrote also as open source (or) do i need to pay at any  
stage ?

Thanks for your help!

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**Author:** ![newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newcoder1)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117/2 "2007-05-02T00:33:11Z")

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On 02 May 2007, at 00:26, newcoder1 wrote:

> free (or) am i obligated to publish the  
> software i wrote also as open source (or) do i need to pay at any  
> stage ?

Click through on the link located at the bottom of the Ruby on Rails  
homepage:

The MIT License

Copyright ©

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining  
a copy  
of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”),  
to deal  
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the  
rights  
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or  
sell  
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is  
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be  
included in  
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,  
EXPRESS OR  
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,  
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT  
SHALL THE  
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER  
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,  
ARISING FROM,  
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER  
DEALINGS IN  
THE SOFTWARE.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt

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**Author:** ![newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newcoder1)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117/3 "2007-05-02T02:28:17Z")

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Hi Peter, please be aware that changes to Ruby Core may cause issues  
within  
current and future releases of Rails. Thus, you’ll be reponsible for  
any  
changes that you make within both Rails and Ruby that have not been  
integrated back into their respective cores.

Good luck,

-Conrad

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**Author:** ![newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@newcoder1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newcoder1)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-licensing/103117/4 "2007-05-02T14:21:24Z")

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Investigate Rails plugins for modifying Rails or Ruby core. It’s easy,  
portable, and non-destructive.