Hello, On 07/29/2002 07:16 PM, Richard Lynch wrote: >>If someone is going to be using scripts that they grabbed > >>from a public forum (PHP Builder, PHPClasses, etc) in a > >>commercial product (that is going to be compiled with the >>Zend encoder and released), what is the protocol, if any? >>Do you have to get permission from the author or anything? >>I've read a bit of the GNU Public liscence but I didn't come >>away knowing any more than went I started reading it. So >>I figure I'd ask here where I'm sure many of you have this >>type of experience. > > > If the source code in question has *NO* licensing/copyright notice, the > author of the source holds the copyright, and you can't use it legally.
Copyright and licenses are different things. Authors always hold copyrights until their work becomes of the public domain. Before that, the copyright is of the author regardless of the license. > If the source code in question was published under GNU, you're bound by the > GNU license, which I *THINK* let's you use it in a commercial release... > You'd have to read up on the "examples" of what GNU does/doesn't allow. I > think the FSF site might have some clear examples. No, you can't incorporate GPL code without your software being infected, meaning you have to distribute the source of the programs that you develop that incorporate GPL code. This basically rules out closed source programs like the original poster wants to sell. > If in doubt, contact the author. Worst that can happen is they want some > money, or you have to come up with a different solution. Odds are really > really good that there is an alternative solution "out there" to almost > *ANY* of the publicly available code in those forums, or that you could dig > into them for the core of what they do and write your own from scratch. Yes, that is the recommended way of dealing with the licensing doubts. -- Regards, Manuel Lemos -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
