Uli: I have just gotten in contact with Richard
Stallman of GNU to investigate whether there was a way
to use the GPL or a GPL compatible licence for
FreeCard's code ...
Alain: Great initiative, Uli.
Uli: ... and I am currently discussing with him how we
would circumvent the "virus" problem that would cause
your stacks to become GPL when merged into a
standalone.
Alain: One of my pet peaves. I am not dreaming.
Someone IS listening! ;-)
Uli: I'm still working out the details, but basically
he suggested adding the following exception to the
FreeCard licence (which would in all other regards be
merely a verbatim copy of the GPL):
Alain: That's excellent, in several regards: (1) we
will have less problems with a well-recognized
licencing scheme (GPL) instead of something custom.
(2) we will in effect be leveraging our work by wisely
employing the work of others, e.g. it should speed
things up. (3) most of the other open source projects
are GPL, and require the spread of GPL to anyone using
their source. If we become GPL too, then we will be
able to take advantage of existing open-source
code/projects. Projects like Netscape's Gecko, and
MacPerl's OSA code, come to mind.
> As a special exception, integrated combinations of
> FreeCard in executable form with your stacks to be
> displayed using FreeCard is permitted under your
> choice of license, provided the license does not
> permit extraction of the FreeCard executable from
> the combination.
Uli: Could Eric or anyone else who's versed in the law
point out any loopholes this extension might have?
Uli: I'm still investigating how we'd prevent someone
from writing their own editing environment stack and
saving that as a standalone to be able to sell an
unfree FreeCard.
Alain: Humm .. That's a tough nut to crack. When is a
stack a FreeCard clone? This is further complicated by
the fact that many of FreeCard's components will be,
in fact, FreeCard stacks.
* components such as: scriptEditor, messageWatcher,
variableWatcher, dialogs of all kinds, etc ... are
likely to be freeCard stacks, instead of external
resources/windows (as discussed recently).
Uli: I guess it'll be something like SuperCard's
clause that forbids building products that directly
compete with it.
Alain: How would you legally evaluate whether a
FreeCard standalone competes with FreeCard itself?
Uli: I'll keep you posted.
Alain: This work is invaluable to us, Uli. Despite the
difficulties, I am sure that you (and Richard) shall
prevail ... and that FreeCard will finally have a
solid licencing scheme that satisfies everyone
involved. On a personal note, I am pleased to see that
my concerns are being taken into account ... and that
my lobbying has not been in vain.
Cheers,
Alain
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