Interesting - and once the license is approved you can continue to use sites
like sourcefourge to distribute the software?

-----Original Message-----
From: Jochem van Dieten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 12:54 PM
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: GNU Public License


Ian Lurie wrote:
> No. We charge clients to install it but have never sold it on a
per-license
> basis. Like a lot of apps, it grew organically out of a need for a small,
> simple CMS for smaller clients. In the past year we've worked to make the
> code less ugly and more easily reused...
>
> The GNU license works for this, correct? As long as we don't sell the
> software itself, we're complying?

GPL is a bit tricky. There is a reason why it is called viral.

Any code that is released under the GPL is can be used, copied and
redistributed by anyone. But if you redistribute it you have to
redistribute the source with it.
You are also free to modify the source. You do not have to make public
the changes you made to the source.

There is a point where these to rules conflict, and that is where you
redistribute the application while you have made changes to the source.
In that case, you have to distribute the source of the entire
application, including all changes you made to it.

Off course, since you are the original writers of the application you
can choose to go for a double licensing scheme. Release one version
under the GPL and keep another version for yourself. That way you do not
have to release the source for every change you make to the system. But
you will also not be able to incorporate any fixes/enhancements somebody
else made to the GPL version, because those changes will be GPL'ed and
can therefore only be included in GPL'ed applications. This part of the
license is what makes the GPL viral.

If you dan't want any of these hassles about opening/closing etc., just
go for the BSD licence. It is the archetypical open source licence, and
it gives much more freedom for everyone. And you can understand the
license without the help of a mailinglist.

Jochem


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