Apple Core Foundation License

Question

Can I use the Core Foundation open source Apple Foundation (CF classes) in a commercial product for free? That is, can I compile and link to libraries without open source code for my own application code? Obviously, if I change the source code of the CF, I would introduce the changes.

This is a very well-built API, and I would not want to reinvent the wheel.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: IANAL.

CF-Lite (the open source part - some part of CoreFoundation is close to the source) is licensed in APSL 2.0 . You can link to CF-Lite for decency software:

2.1 Unmodified code. You may use, reproduce, display, execute, internally distribute in your organization and Externally Deploy verbatim, unmodified copies of the source code for commercial or non-commercial purposes, provided that in each case: _{(you must indicate copyright and license, etc. .)}

But you must document and post source code changes to users if you modify CF-Lite:

2.2 Modified code. ... (c) If you externally deploy your modifications, you must make the Source Code of all your external versions available to those to whom you Externally Deployed Your Changes, or publicly available ....