Hi Again, Well I'm not a lawyer either so we have something in common!
I've been distributing AV Linux like this since 2007 and to be honest never have had this come up, I will have to scour the fine print a little closer but I was under the impression that any derived work could be licensed outside of the GPL provided the source code of the derived work was made available upon request. The 'source code' is the ISO image which is freely available for anyone to download and poke through (that's the idea really) and of course the GPL content of Debian has it's source code freely available as well. Regardless the icluded closed source content falls outside of the GPL and there is no law forbidding me to distribute it on an ISO of my making providing I have the permission of the developers which I do. If it's the semantics of the term 'non-GPL' that bothers you it is intended to be interpreted as 'outside of the GPL' not 'against the GPL' if that makes any difference Regards, _GLEN > > Glen, > > Thanks for the clarifications. Although I am not a lawyer, I have doubts > about the fact that the license in AV linux can be changed at the > developer's convenience, since it still is derived work. The GPL > specifically says that derived work qualifies for the GPL license itself. > LGPL is more relaxed in these terms. But the fact that AV linux is > distributed with a non GPL license, while most of its components are, it > looks to me as a potential violation of the license itself. > > Again, I am not a lawyer, and I am just trying to understand the > situation. > > Thanks again, > Nicola > > > >> From: [email protected] >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [CinCV] AV Linux and it's 'non-GPL' license >> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 10:41:12 -0700 >> >> Hi fellow CinCV'ers >> >> I recently was browsing the mail archives here and noticed some concern >> over the AV Linux 5.0 release announcement I posted here in June. My >> sincere apologies for not replying, at the time I was not a Cinelerra >> mailing list subscriber so any replies to my announcement didn't come >> back >> to me. >> >> Hopefully I can clarify what 'non-GPL' means in reference to AV Linux >> for >> those on the list who care to know... >> >> AV Linux is a multimedia focused distro and contains both excellent >> Open-Source programs and also Commercial Linux Audio Plugins and >> Sequencers that are presented as demos. I personally am not a very >> political Linux user and enjoy both open and closed Linux software so I >> made arrangements with each individual developer/vendor of the >> commercial >> applications to include the demo versions in AV Linux. >> >> The terms of the demo licenses were that I could distribute them in AV >> Linux however someone could not re-distribute AV Linux as-is without >> violating those licenses. This is why AV Linux is non-GPL because it >> can't >> be redistributed as-is. However AV Linux with all the commercial demos >> removed is simply a heavily tweaked and customized Debian Squeeze and >> would be GPL like the software it contains. >> >> I am a huge fan of Cinelerra and would very much like to use my AV Linux >> distribution to promote and further it's use as well as it's >> contemporaries. I take a personal interest in it and have recently done >> a >> lot of behind the scenes configuration work to make easier for new users >> in the next AV Linux release. I sincerely hope that this post clears up >> any confusion or concern about my intentions. >> >> Best Regards, Glen MacArthur - AV Linux Maintainer >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Cinelerra mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra > _______________________________________________ Cinelerra mailing list [email protected] https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra
