Dear Wez et al,
I've created a modified version of VNC. It is the same as RealVNC 4.1.1
with an added commend-line feature for the server that initiates a single
connection to a listening viewer, and doesn't permit any other connections,
no matter which side they are initiated. The server exits when the original
connection is closed. My ultimate aim is to make this into a "help me"
feature, which could be put on a website.
My question is not technical, but regards licensing and copyright. This is
the first time that I want to release software under the GPL, and I want to
be sure that I follow the conditions properly. Obviously I need to make the
source code available. What do I need to do regards copyright notices, both
in the source and packaged with the application?
Secondly, I mentioned above that my intention is to make this into a "help
me" feature, which could be put on a website. The website will have a link
to a program P1.exe. The user can download this or run it direct from the
website as desired. When run, P1 will download the modified vnc server and
the wm_hooks.dll to a temporary folder. Then P1 runs the modified server is
run via the command line to connect only to me (exactly where "me" is will
be determined by other features in the P1 program). After the server exits,
P1 deletes both the server and the dll. So my questions are:
Does P1.exe need to be released under the GPL? It is not "a work based on
the program" as it will be all my own work. However, it is dependent on vnc
in order to work. As P1 downloads the GPL licensed .exe and .dll, does it
also have to download the source code/a written offer of it. NB the source
will be available for download at the same location from which the .exe and
.dll are downloaded. I don't really want to go the "written offer" route,
but nor do I want P1 to initiate downloads that 99% of the time will just be
slowing the vnc connection. One option I've thought of is to have an option
in P1's GUI that user's can tick to say that they want to download the
source as well as the binaries. Would that be sufficient?
I haven't been able to find a newsgroup/mailing-list that deals with
question like "I want to do xyz, is this permissible under the GPL?" so I
thought I'd try you as the original authors of RealVNC to see if you feel my
intentions would infringe your copyright. If anyone knows of a group where
it would be more appropriate to ask my questions, please let me know.
Stewart Becker (NutmeG)
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