Licensing

OpenPhone uses a dual-license model for OpenPhone-owned materials while keeping upstream Android, LineageOS, Linux, vendor, and third-party licensing separate.

This document is an engineering policy for the repository. It is not legal advice.

License Model

OpenPhone-owned materials are licensed as follows:

• Non-commercial use: PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0.
• Commercial use: separate written commercial license required.

The authoritative files are:

• LICENSE: repository license summary and boundary statement.
• LICENSE.noncommercial: full PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 text.
• COMMERCIAL.md: commercial licensing policy.
• THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md: third-party boundary notes.

Because commercial use is restricted, OpenPhone should be described as source-available, not open source in the OSI sense.

OpenPhone-Owned Materials

Unless a file says otherwise, the following are OpenPhone-owned materials:

• OpenPhone assistant app code and resources.
• vendor/openphone product, policy, config, and build metadata.
• OpenPhone docs, device notes, schemas, scripts, manifests, and project management files.
• OpenPhone-created patches, except where a patch modifies GPL-covered code or a file-specific upstream license requires different treatment.

Commercial users need a commercial license for OpenPhone-owned materials, including commercial OEM, ODM, carrier, enterprise, hosted, managed, internal business, pilot, proof-of-concept, and white-label uses.

Android Build Metadata

OpenPhone-owned Android modules should use Soong license metadata with:

legacy_restricted

Android's Soong license database does not currently define SPDX-license-identifier-PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0 in the target branch. Use legacy_restricted for module metadata and point license_text at the module's OpenPhone license file. Do not mark OpenPhone-owned modules as Apache-2.0, MIT, BSD, or another permissive license unless that is an intentional file-specific override.

Upstream Code

OpenPhone does not relicense upstream code. AOSP, LineageOS, Linux kernel, device trees, vendor extraction scripts, and third-party dependencies keep their original licenses.

When OpenPhone patches existing upstream files, preserve existing copyright and license notices. If the target file is GPL-covered, GPL obligations control for that modification.

GPL

GPL-covered components, especially kernel code, remain GPL-covered. Any distributed GPL modifications must satisfy GPL source obligations. Do not put non-commercial restrictions on GPL-covered code.

Vendor Blobs

Vendor blobs may be proprietary. Prefer extraction scripts unless redistribution is clearly permitted.

Every supported device should document:

• Blob source.
• Blob version.
• Whether blobs are hosted or extracted.
• Redistribution notes.

Contributions

External contributions require the contributor policy in CONTRIBUTING.md. The key requirement is that contributors must agree that OpenPhone may distribute their contribution under both the public non-commercial license and separate commercial licenses.