Is Pholcus free to use for commercial projects?

Pholcus is an open-source, distributed, high-concurrency crawler software written in Go (Golang). It is designed for web data mining and can handle both static and dynamic web pages. Pholcus provides a web UI to manage crawl tasks and supports distributed operation.

Regarding its use in commercial projects, the permissibility depends on the license under which Pholcus is distributed. Software licenses dictate how a piece of software can be used, modified, and distributed. Common open-source licenses include the MIT License, Apache License 2.0, and GNU General Public License (GPL).

To determine if Pholcus is free for commercial use, you should:

1. Check the current license of Pholcus on its official repository or website.
2. Read the license terms to understand the conditions under which the software can be used.

If Pholcus is distributed under a permissive license like the MIT or Apache License, it is generally free to use for commercial purposes, provided you adhere to the terms set out in the license (such as including a copy of the license in any distributions of the software or derivative works).

If it's under a more restrictive license like the GPL, you can still use it commercially, but you must comply with conditions such as making the source code of any derived works available under the same GPL license.

Please note that software licenses can change over time, and the developers of Pholcus may decide to alter the terms under which it is distributed. Therefore, it's important to review the license directly from the official source to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information. If you're unsure about the interpretation of the license or how it applies to your use case, you should consult with a legal professional.

Here's a general example of how you might find and review the license information:

# Clone the official Pholcus repository (replace with the actual repository URL)
git clone https://github.com/henrylee2cn/pholcus.git

# Navigate to the repository directory
cd pholcus

# Look for a file named LICENSE or COPYING, which typically contains the license text
cat LICENSE

Review the contents of the license file to understand the terms and conditions. If you're still unsure or the license is not clearly stated, you may need to contact the maintainers of Pholcus directly to inquire about its usage in commercial projects.