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Looks like both of the libraries built by Andrew Valums. They both seem to have the same license(GNU GPL v3).

File-uploader can be easily downloaded but for the fine uploader I have to provide my email address to download and it would allow me to use it only for 45 days for free.

As of now it seems I'm able to clone both of these on github.

My question is can I use both or one of these libraries in our of my clients projects for without getting a commercial license?

Wasula Kankanamge
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  • This is not an appropriate question for stackoverflow. Stackoverflow is for technical questions. If you have licensing question, please email licensing@fineuploader.com. – Ray Nicholus Jun 26 '13 at 20:40
  • I'm also typing up a bit of a history lesson for anyone else who runs into this. The topic may be deleted from SO though. – Ray Nicholus Jun 26 '13 at 20:42
  • Thanks for the feedback everybody! As all of you can see I'm a newby here. What are my options to get this question out of the way? – Wasula Kankanamge Jun 28 '13 at 20:57

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Update: As of version 5.9.0 in May of 2016, Fine Uploader is now 100% Free Open Source Software, licensed under MIT.

Update: As of 19 November 2018, The Fine Uploader project has reached the end of its life.

Please note that there is a long and storied history of Fine Uploader. The original library was developed by Andrew Valums. In August of 2012, after the library at valums/file-uploader decayed for a while as Andrew ran out of time to work on the project, he handed it over to me. The name was then changed to Fine Uploader. At the time Andrew made me the maintainer of the library, there were many forks of the project. The one at valums-file-uploader.github.io was one such fork. All forks, as far as I can tell, have been abandoned for quite a long time. The only current actively maintained version is the "original", now located at Widen/fine-uploader (http://fineuploader.com). The one you referenced (valums-file-uploader.github.io) has had no activity for over 7 months. Meanwhile, the "official" Fine Uploader (a.k.a. valums/file-uploader) has been evolving rapidly since I took over development.

In late March of 2013, Andrew and I transferred ownership of Fine Uploader to Widen Enterprises (my employer). The valums/file-uploader repo was then transferred to Widen/fine-uploader. It is dual-licensed. The default license is GPL v3. We also offer a commercial license. Our licensing model (which is covered in the licensing FAQ) was written with the expectation that commercial uses of Fine Uploader would be licensed/paid. We put money and time into Fine Uploader, and it's important that the product remains financially viable in order for us to continue to maintain and evolve the library.

Thomas Cheng
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Ray Nicholus
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    "For open-source users (those comfortable with the GPL v3 license) please see the documentation for information on building your own version-stamped copy of the library." --> http://docs.fineuploader.com/branch/master/contributing.html – Alexander Sidikov Pfeif Nov 28 '13 at 08:36
  • Note that, as of version 5.1, Fine Uploader's license has changed. There is a commercial license, which you **must** purchase if you are using Fine Uploader in a commercial setting. If you are using Fine Uploader in a free project, then you may use Fine Uploader for free. – Ray Nicholus Feb 04 '15 at 18:20
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    Fine Uploader is MIT as of 5.9.0. – Ray Nicholus May 14 '16 at 21:57
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    If anyone else is curious about the history of the license changes -- as I was, after reading Ray's posts here -- he wrote a more complete breakdown ( [link](https://medium.com/@RayNicholus/disrupting-open-source-the-story-of-fine-uploader-80160eb557d9#.mi3e8xugm) ). – Mass Dot Net Jan 20 '17 at 20:49