Using Fluent NHibernate in commercial application [closed]

Question

I want to use Fluent NHibernate in commercial desktop application, and I'm little concerned about the licensing. I've downloaded Fluent NHibernate precompiled binaries, and it contains this list of files:

Antlr3.Runtime.dll
Castle.Core.dll
Castle.DynamicProxy2.dll
FluentNHibernate.dll
Iesi.Collections.dll
log4net.dll
NHibernate.dll
NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle.dll

I guess I will have to add all of these files to my Inno Setup script, which will install them on user's computer. But what should I do to comply to all of the licenses associated with each file? I'm sure I'm not the first who wants to use Fluent NHibernate in commercial application, so I hope I won't have to study each of the licenses.

I'm not a lawyer.

Answer 1

The licensing is as follows:

• Castle Project: Apache License
• ANTLR 3: BSD License
• Fluent NHibernate: BSD License
• Iesi: Here (do anything you want with it)
• Log4net: Apache License
• NHibernate GNU Lesser General Public License

The Apache and BSD licenses are permissive. Basically, just make sure you include the license itself, and don't remove the copyright notices, and you'll be fine. The LGPL adds the condition that it has to be possible to link your application against a newer version of the library, which applies to virtually every .NET app - you'd have to make a conscious effort to violate this.

As far as I know, those are the only restrictions you need to worry about. There's no copyleft GPL restrictions on any of those libraries, they're all free for commercial use.

Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer either. The last two paragraphs reflect my best understanding of the actual text of the applicable licenses. If you work for a publicly-traded company or are seriously worried about being sued, consult an actual lawyer.