TOS Friendly Open Source License

[theothertomelliott]

To get myself back on the iOS train, I've been thinking about writing an open source app and blogging my progress.

I'd like to be able to release any results as a free app so you don't need a developer account to see the results. I've read that the GPL isn't compatible with Apple's terms for the App Store and would result in a rejection.

Can anyone recommend an open source licensing model (of the "use freely with acknowledgement" form) that wouldn't result in an automatic rejection?

[dre]

I never heard of GPLed app being rejected. Check out Tyrian, it's been in appstore forever.

[hugbug]

You may have problems if you put into the app store someone else's work released as open source. However even in this case it will not be rejected until the original author complains about his rights.

If you write your own code you have the full rights (if you don't use any external code) to put it into the app store. You can release your code additionally under GPL or any other open source license. You can also publish it additionally under a commercial license. That's your work and you can do whatever you want.

Your exclusive rights stop when you start using patches submitted to your open source version. If you expect a collaborative work you really need to choose an appropriate open source license. I suggest to add a line to the license text which explicitly states that the submitted patches are allowed to be used in the app store.

Anyway unless you are going to write something really big and popular there is nothing to worry about.

[theothertomelliott]

Awesome, thanks for clearing that up

And I don't think there's any danger of it becoming big and popular. More of an intellectual exercise.