If I use .Net Core 2.0 my software must by open software? [closed]

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If I use .Net Core 2.0 my software must by 'open software' or what?

Sorry for my English.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This answer is not substitute for legal advice.

You are not required to open source a product developed to run on .NET Core (any version).

To be clear, .NET Core uses a MIT License, which you must include in any distribution of .NET Core. However, this license only applies to .NET Core, and not to a software developed to run on it. Thus, if you are merely targeting .NET Core, you do not have to worry about this. This is the case for most people that use .NET Core.

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However, if you take portions of the source code of .NET Core to include in your product, or if you modify and distribute a modified .NET Core, then you should release under MIT License.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am an engineer with some legal experience. And that experience is not in sublicensing code that has been released under the MIT license. I say below that your modifications should remain available under MIT License because it clearly states that you shall keep it. Even if my reading on the license is wrong, doing so should keep you on the safe side.

Note: You can sublicense under a different license, however your modifications should remain available under MIT License. If you really want to do this, I advise to clearly label what files or code blocks comes from the .NET Core source code and to reference in source the appropriate licenses in each instance. This is much easier if you can keep all your modifications of the .NET Core source to a separate project.

Modifying or using the source code is the odd case. You do this by going out of your way to take parts or the totality of the source code from the .NET Core repositories and using that in your project. If you are NOT modifying or using portions of the .NET Core source code, you do not have to worry about this. If you want to modify .NET Core for a privative product, in theory, you could negotiate a different license with Microsoft; I cannot help you with that.

Answer 2

No.

.NET Core is under MIT licence.

That means you are not required to make your software open-source if you use or redistribute it with your application.