On Fri, 2003-02-28 at 17:16, Henning Makholm wrote: > Scripsit David Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > I think that PHPNuke actually is applying (2)(c) correctly. The output > > of PHPNuke is derived from the HTML and Javascript input. In the case > > of Javascript in separate files, it's not even derived -- it's the > > original. It's clear that PHPNuke "reads commands interactively" in the > > sense of (2)(c). > > However, if we accept the theory that the reader of the website is also > a user of the program (which does have something going for it), GPL > 2(c) says that the notice must be displayed "when started running for > such interactive use in the most ordinary way". That would be on the > front page of the website (http://www.example.org/), but not > necessarily on each of the generated pages one sees *after* having > started browsing the site.
I guess that's true, although if you bookmark a page, and come back to it, that might be a new start. > > *I don't see a problem if the notice were moved to another part of the > > site and HTML linked to.* > > If it's GPL 2(c) we're talking about, hiding the notice away in an > about box would not fulfil the clause. I'm suggesting as a footer: FooWebProg is Copyright 2003, <a href="/2c.html">Freddy Bloggs and others</a>. There's no warranty. You can redistribute the program under the terms of <a href="/gpl.html">the GNU GPL version 2</a>. And 2c.html could have as much verbiage as needed. I think this would fit (2)(c). > > (2)(c) merely states that they *could* have such a notice. Most of the > > coreutils aren't interactive. But for emacs, I think the (2)(c) notice > > is somewhere in the startup text. > > If emacs is started with few enough arguments AND one doesn't have > (setq inhibit-startup-message t) or something equivalent in .emacs, > it will display the 2(c) notice in the editor window until the first > keypress is received. Sure -- that's not the most ordinary way. > Hmm, I wonder whether the GPL is supposed to allow a system > administrator to set the inhinit-startup-message variable from > his site startup file. That would to some extent be analogous to > configuring PHPNuke to not display the footer messages. Hm, this is an interesting question. One question might be whether that site startup file was part of emacs. > > > Which FSF staffer advocated this extremely broad interpretation of 2c? > > > That would be me -- and it's not orthodoxy, just my intepretation. > > I've been wrong before. This paragraph is the only part of the > > message where I'm speaking for the FSF. I don't think the FSF has > > any position on any of this, and I'm not sure we want to. > > Hm, you probably ought to be aware that the PHPNuke people seem to > have interpreted it as an authoritative statement from the FSF: > <http://phpnuke.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4947> I wish I had been more clear that IANAL and TINLA. -- -Dave Turner Stalk Me: 617 441 0668 "On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock." -Thomas Jefferson
