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@scottalanmiller Thanks for all your help, you have cleared a lot of my doubts.

Are you planning to actually use NodeBB inside or as a base for your larger application?

The main product would be a marketplace platform where users would buy and sell services. Since they would be logged into the website, I also want a forum for them to interact with each other and have discussions. Based on how helpful they are to other users, they will accumulate karma/reputation. That karma would in turn be shown alongside their service listings on the platform, which will help them gain new customers for their services. Would such a system require the forum to be 'coupled' with the rest of the program?

@scottalanmiller I am just concerned about its 'virality' clause. That if for some reason my program is considered to be distributed, I would have to open source the entirety of it.

1. I have read that if the server sends javascript to the user's browser, that is considered 'distribution' under GPL. Is that true?

2. Would the manifests and service workers of progressive web apps be considered distribution? Since they store a little bit of cached data on the user device itself?

@scottalanmiller Thanks for your detailed response. I have a few more queries if you could please help me with those too:

1. What exactly is considered 'distribution' in the case of GPL v3? My project would be an online marketplace and I want to use NodeBB as the community forum for my platform. Would making my NodeBB-based forum available to customers of my website be considered 'distribution'?

2. Since the customers would already have an account with my overall website and they would use the forum without logging out, would that mean that my website is 'coupled' with NodeBB?

Hi,

I am a novice web developer and currently still in the process of improving my skills. I want to develop a project that I want to hopefully commercialize later. I am interested in using NodeBB(Open-source option) as the forum for my larger project.

1. If I incorporate NodeBB into my project, would I have to open-source my entire project or just the derivatives of NodeBB that I use?

2. Am I allowed to commercialize my project while using NodeBB? Are there any restrictions imposed on the user that I need to be aware of?

3. Does NodeBB offer a more permissive licensing option for a one-time fee to individuals and startups? (I would be self-hosting)

Thank you.