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Licenses

OpenC3 COSMOS is offered under a tri-licensing model allowing users to choose between the following three options:

OpenC3 Builder License​

This is our default open source license and the license that most free users use. The OpenC3 Builder License is a modification of the Elastic License 2.0. You can read the whole thing here: OpenC3 License

Obviously, the total license text applies, but the Limitations is the key section:

  1. You may not provide the software or its functionality to third parties as any part of a hosted or managed service.
  2. You may not distribute any changes made to the software on a commercial basis.
  3. You may not alter, remove, or obscure any licensing, copyright, or other notices of the licensor in the software. Any use of the licensor’s trademarks is subject to applicable law.

As the copyright holder, OpenC3 is able to license the product and derivatives commercially. No-one else can do this. OpenC3 is also able to license legacy Ball Aerospace COSMOS code under IP agreement.

Evaluation and Education Use Only​

This license takes effect as soon as you use any plugin we publish under Evaluation and Education terms. Currently the only plugin we use for this is our CCSDS CFDP plugin: CFDP Plugin

You can read the whole license here:

# OpenC3 Evaluation and Educational License
#
# Copyright 2023 OpenC3, Inc.
#
# This work is licensed for evaluation and educational purposes only.
# It may NOT be used for formal development, integration and test, operations
# or any other commercial purpose without the purchase of a commercial license
# from OpenC3, Inc.
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies
# or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
# INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
# PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
# HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
# OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
# SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

This license is pretty straight forward, but the key is you can't use this code for any real work leading to a product (Formal Development, Integration and Test, or Operations) unless you switch to purchasing a commercial license.

Commercial License​

This license is a signed contract with OpenC3. It allows use of our code for a program under contractual terms.

Generally we license to a specific project with terms that allow for unlimited users, and installs as needed by that project. Any code and plugins that you develop under the commercial license can be kept proprietary.

These licenses are sold as yearly subscriptions, or as a non-expiring perpetual license. We also offer site licenses, and licenses to support unlimited missions on a government framework architecture.

Of course with our commercial license, you also get all the extra functionality of our Enterprise product.

Why you should buy a Commercial License​

  1. You want to save years and tens of millions of dollars developing the same functionality yourself.

  2. You want all of the Enterprise functionality of COSMOS Enterprise

    1. User Accounts
    2. Role Based Access Control
    3. LDAP Support
    4. Kubernetes Support
    5. Cloud Deployment Configurations
    6. The right to use CFDP and other Enterprise Only plugins
    7. Grafana Support
    8. Support from the COSMOS Developers
    9. Calendar, Autonomic, Command History, Log Explorer, System Health
    10. Lots more - See our Enterprise page

  3. You want to support the continued development and innovation of the COSMOS product

We appreciate all of our commercial customers. You make OpenC3 possible. Thank you.

FAQs​

  1. I see both Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp as well as OpenC3, Inc in the copyright headers. What does this mean?

    OpenC3, Inc has an intellectual property agreement with BAE (formerly Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp) which gives us the rights to commercialize the original work that we built at Ball Aerospace. Customers only need to purchase a commercial license from OpenC3.

  2. What are the limits of the COSMOS Enterprise? How many users can we have? How many times can it be installed?

    The COSMOS Enterprise license has no user or installation limits.

  3. How is the COSMOS Enterprise license enforced?

    The COSMOS Enterprise license is enforced through contract only without license managers or additional software controls.

  4. How is the COSMOS Enterprise license applied? Per company? Per program?

    COSMOS Enterprise is typically licensed to a named mission or group. We also have site licenses, company licenses, and mission ops center licenses. Please contact us at sales@openc3.com for more information.

  5. Do you license to foreign companies? How do you handle ITAR or the EAR?

    We have several international customers and are not subject to ITAR export controls. We are export controlled under the EAR via ECCN 5D002c1. We have a detailed writeup explaining this justification as well as a commodity classification document from the Department of Commerce. Please contact us at sales@openc3.com for more information.