> Well I'm not a lawyer either so we have something in common! Hi Glen and the others,
likewise, I'll join the club of non-lawyers discussing legal issues ;-) Am 05.10.2011 00:41, schrieb [email protected]: > I've been distributing AV Linux like this since 2007 and .... > ... 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. This impression is simply wrong. You just had the luck that no one sued you. This matter isn't difficult. Any confusion boils down to being precise with the term "derived work". If you want to license a "derived work" *outside* the GPL, then you need to negotiate with *each* contributor to the GPLed work to get you an *separate* usage agreement for his/her code *independent* of that code being published also under the GPL. If you can't do that, the GPL as it stands is crisp and clear. *You* use GPLed content to build your derived work. This implies that *you* comply to the GPL beforehand. And the GPL dictates that every derived work has to be *licensed again under the GPL*. End of the discussion. This is what often is referred to as the "infectious" or "viral" property of the GPL. Other licenses (e.g. the Apache License) are deliberately different and do not employ this strict ruling. > The 'source code' is the ISO image... Sorry, no. Source code is source code is source code. This isn't a matter for interpretation. Source code is an textual or similarly editable representation from which you can re-create your whole delivery. There is an absolutely simple criterion: What everyone can rebuild from the accessible source code, needs to be equivalent to what you distribute in binary form (including all your modifications). Btw: that exactly was the reason why GPL doesn't play well for distributing media content. That's one of the reasons, why we have the CreativeCommons licenses. > .... 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. What you do here is compiling several products into a distribution. That is another matter altogether. Indeed you're free to do so. The key distinguishing point is if you just ship independent pieces together, as opposed to combining GPLed and non-GPLed code into a new product. If you do the latter, the GPL rulez! But you're always free to do the former (just shipping together). Just in that case you need to make clear to your users that they get content with two different licenses, and, because you're distributing GPLed content as part of your distribution, *you* need to make the source code for that GPLed content available. It doesn't suffice that you state that everyone interested can get the source code from "somewhere". *You* need to provide it. The GPL-2 even contains some rules on how, and how much you're allowed to charge for e.g. mailing an CD with source code to a user requesting that from you. The GPL-2 is very outdated in that respect, indeed. If I recall correct, only the GPL-3 contains a ruling that it is sufficient to publish an URL to a net server holding the full and exact source code, and that you're not bound to ship floppies to some bozo in Mongolia where there is no internet access. Nevertheless, even with the GPL-3, you need to assure that that net server is reasonably accessible. To elaborate on that point: Debian doesn't keep an archive of superseded source code versions. If you e.g. base your code modifications on some library in Debian/oldstable, some years ahead that basic code won't be accessible from Debian anymore. If you hit an evil spirited lawyer, you can get a lot of trouble consequently. Please understand me right. I am all sympathetic with what you do! Just, if there are some values at stake, commercially, I can only recommend to check the legal issues with a real lawyer and to make sure you're in the safe zone. Keep the good work up! Cheers, Hermann Vosseler _______________________________________________ Cinelerra mailing list [email protected] https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra
