Our default software license and related explanations.
GMS is actively contributing to various open source projects. While we support open source and OSS software, some of the software products we produce are specifically made for our industry.
We are proud supporters of the following categories of usage (with or without external support to run it):
- Self operated usage of our software;
- IT departments that want to use our software internally;
- Any company of any size that wants to use our software internally or with customers to provide services through our tools and not the tools themselves;
- Any NGO or education institution internally or for educational and social causes.
While we would love to contribute just for pleasure of contributing, we had to draw some limitations to not harm our business activities that contribute the financial means to develop and sponsor free software.
Therefor following categories of commercial applications require you to seek a different license from the copyright holder:
- Any party that wants to offer our software hosted to third parties against a payment, solely or in conjunction with other products to primarily reproduce features of our software.
If you need help running our services, feel free to reach out to us.
Mostly in our repositories, but also here.
You are allowed to use our software in any way you see fit on your own infrastructure and seek any kind of support to do so. This includes you being a repair shop and using our software or using it an IT department or any other direct usage.
Use our software to provide services that are solely based on the use of our software. This includes offering our software without or with only minor modifications to provide the software itself as a service.
In most cases there is absolutely no issue with that, we reserve the right to require you to close a license agreement with us to contribute financially to our software development though. Reach out to us and we can discuss a free fair use policy (for NGOs and education sector usage) or a sponsoring for our repositories in exchange for unrestricted licenses for your commercial use.
We felt they were all too long and too complicated and wanted something easier to understand.
Absolutely, feel free to dedistribute your own projects with this license. We made a template just for people like you :) Our license template itself is licensed as creative common allowing you to do whatever you want with it.
Our company is a spin off of a large consumer electronics repair company, we have made this license to allow our customers to use it and anybody who might find use for it in an end user setting. Our software is not made for direct competitors or simple resellers. An example for you might be software that you want to commercially redistribute but also allow for it to be used for free in selfhosted (commercial or not) situations.
Anybody who wants either total free float of the software or total restrictions on the source code.
The table below shows you the most common use cases.
| Scenario | Is my use allowed? |
|---|---|
| I own a commercial activity and want to use your software in my shop to offer services to customers. | YES |
| I am an IT consultant and want to install this software on behalf of a customer at a location on hardware owned by my customer. | YES |
| I am an IT consultant and want to sell this software to my customer as a service with a recurring fee or as an installation. | Contact us for a licensing agreement. |
| I am a hosting service and my customer installed this software on a server rented and / or owned by the customer. | YES |
| I am a hosting service and want to offer the software as a click to install package. | Contact us for a licensing agreement. |
| License Text | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Copyright (c) 2025 GMS. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. |
The first three paragraphs obligate you redistribute an attribution to us and the entire license together with the source code, you are not allowed to redistribute it without. |
| 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by GMS (https://gms.green/). | When you send a quote or promote the usage of this software in sales materials such as a presentation you need to clearly state that this part of your commercial offering has been partially or entirely developed by us ("GMS"). |
| 4. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. | We won't endorse you. You can use our software, but we do not automatically sign any claim that your product or services are viable. We might give you an endorsement if you ask us. |
| 5. Neither the source code nor a binary form may be used to offer a product or a service to solely accomplish for users the primary purpose of the source code. | You are not allowed to redistribute our software compiled or not (this includes as a webservice) solely to sell our software to others. This includes you beeing a software house and selling our software as a service or product. This does not include you operating a commercial activity and use our services by your own to sell or offer your own services. |
| 6. The copyright holder may or may not provide this software to a third party with a more permissive license. | If you ask us we might allow a wider use of our software with a more permissive license, usually against a sponsorship fee or a contribution to our development cost |
| 7. Any violation of the conditions above terminates any right to use the source code or any binary form of it. | If we determine that you use our software in ways that are permissive, we will terminate your license immediately. |
| THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY COPYRIGHT HOLDER "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. | A disclaimer protecting us from any damages deriving from the use of our software. |