Software license for own source code publication

Answered

Bernd Zey

March 11, 2025 13:49

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Dear all, 

 I am working in research data management and I am supporting researchers with publications of their data (including source code) in a data repository. 

In case some researchers implement a python program and link to Gurobipy (by using import gurobipy) and want to publish their own source code, are there any restrictions on the software license (caused by gurobi) or can the authors of the source code choose any software license (e.g. MIT) they want? 

Kind regards

Bernd

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  Matthias Miltenberger

  • Gurobi Staff

  March 11, 2025 14:39

  Hi Bernd,

  As long as the Gurobi package is not distributed alongside the program, there are no limitations or restrictions regarding the license. There are multiple projects out there that use gurobipy and even our own open-source projects on Github - Gurobi use the Apache 2.0 license. MIT certainly does not create any issues with Gurobi.

  Cheers,
  Matthias

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  Bernd Zey

  March 11, 2025 16:37

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  That's what I thought, but sometimes the legal aspects are not clear and I wanted to be sure... 

  Thank you, Matthias, for the (fast) answer!

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  Riley Clement

  • Gurobi Staff

  March 12, 2025 00:13

  Hi Bernd,

  I'll also add that their Gurobi Optimizer license details (i.e. those found in gurobi.lic file) must not be published.

  This can often be overlooked if the license parameters are being set in the code.

  - Riley

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  Gwyneth Butera

  • Gurobi Staff

  March 12, 2025 12:17

  To add to what Riley said, also please be sure the code itself does not have any Gurobi license details, such as WLS API keys. -G

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  Bernd Zey

  March 12, 2025 12:23

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  Thank you Riley and Gwyneth for the tip - that makes sense... :-) 

  I will forward this to the researchers

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