Licensing: Frequently Asked Questions

This page deals with questions you may have about VirtualBox and its licensing.

1. What is Open Source Software?

Please see the Open Source Software page.

2. What license is VirtualBox released under?

The Open Source Edition (OSE) is released under the GNU General Public License V2. Essentially, this means that you get the full source code of VirtualBox OSE, and you can distribute and modify it, provided that you ship all modifications under the GPL as well.

If you want the extra features that are missing from VirtualBox OSE, you can alternatively use the full VirtualBox package free of charge for personal use or evaluation purposes. Both versions -- VirtualBox OSE and VirtualBox -- are available from the Downloads page.

3. Can I buy a commercial license for VirtualBox?

If you are an individual end user, there is generally no need to purchase a commercial license, provided that you respect, in the case of VirtualBox OSE, the terms and conditions of the GPL, or, in the case of the full VirtualBox package, those of the Personal Use and Evaluation License.

As an enterprise customer, we encourage you to purchase a commercial license from InnoTek and receive benefits such as access to enterprise features and support for mission-critical use of VirtualBox. We also encourage ISVs and IHVs to incorporate VirtualBox into their offerings, either based on the GPL or preferably through a custom license deal with InnoTek. Please contact InnoTek for additional information.

4. How can VirtualBox be both open source and commercially licensed?

This is called "dual licensing". Since InnoTek held all the copyrights to the VirtualBox code, or is at least permitted to relicense code that is owned by external contributors or other parties, we are free to choose the terms under which we license the code to our customers, or the open source community.

5. Why dual licensing?

We -- like other companies -- believe that dual licensing gives both developers and users the best of two worlds. While anyone is free to look at the code and even improve it, commercial licenses support the company and allow for professional maintenance and support. The open source community gets more high-quality free software at no cost, while businesses can rely on quality support from our first-hand developers. Both worlds profit from each other: The commercial licenses support both our business and the open source community, and vice versa.

6. Will the licensing terms of VirtualBox OSE be changed in the future?

We are not currently planning to do so, but it doesn't really matter. Any code that was once released under the GPL cannot be "closed" again. The license that InnoTek has granted you with the GPL is perpetual and cannot be taken back. Even if InnoTek wanted to change the license again, this could only affect future versions, and anybody would still be permitted to redistribute the existing VirtualBox code under the terms of the GPL.

7. What exactly is this personal use you talk about in the Personal Use and Evaluation License?

Personal use is when you install the product on one or more PCs yourself and you make use of it (or even your friend, sister and grandmother). It doesn't matter whether you just use it for fun or run your multi-million dollar business with it. Also, if you install it on your work PC at some large company, this is still personal use. However, if you are an administrator and want to deploy it to the 100,000 desktops in your company, this would not qualify as personal use. Well, you could ask each of your 100,000 employees to install VirtualBox but don't you think we deserve some money in this case? We'd even assist you with any issue you might have.

8. What is your definition of academic use?

Use at an academic institution such as schools, colleges and universities by both teachers and students is covered. So in addition to the personal use which is always permitted, academic institutions may also choose to roll out the software in an automated way to make it available to its students and personnel.

9. What about software patents?

InnoTek offers VirtualBox free of charge to anyone who finds it useful. The only restrictions we impose are those of either the GPL or our respective commercial licenses -- whichever you choose. This also means that we will not restrict your use of the product by means of patents. However, should someone attempt to abuse the product, e.g. by violating the GPL or our commercial license, we will make use of our intellectual property rights to protect VirtualBox.