I'd agree with Paul. They have access to the RoundCube code with some
minor restrictions. What they're looking for here is a way to remove the
GPL restrictions, not improve the platform. They can see the way that
RoundCube approaches particular problems, but what the offer says is
that they basically want to buy out RoundCube and remove their
competition. Notice the complete lack of any kind of on-going support
(in the monetary sense):
"offer you a reasonable fee to purchase the license of Roundcube, the
site, and for the effort you have contributed to the project."
"you to consult our company in Australia for 1-3 months on the
development of @Mail and merging the two products for the open source
offering"
These are not business deals, it's a buyout, pure & simple.
Paul Waring wrote:
Their home page reads:
"Filtering out the white noise of growing open-source options, @Mail
is a reliable and complete messaging platform that includes full
source code for complete control."
Doesn't sound as if they're terribly keen on open source to me...
Anyway, if they want the advantages/features of Roundcube, they can
take them, provided they abide by the terms of the GPL. I don't see
why they'd have to license the name or buy the domain if they just
want to improve and open source their existing product. There's also
nothing to stop them offering commercial support for Roundcube if they
want, as far as I'm aware that's perfectly legitimate under the GPL.
Paul
