[Typo3-dev] New extension

[Martin T. Kutschker]

Michael Stucki wrote:

> Hi Masi,
> 
> 
>>Still the Typo3 PHP-code and JS-code will form together with the
>>3rd-party PHP and/or JS-code the application. Specifically the 3rd-party
>>code will be embedded in TYpo3 which is GPLed. So even if you write code
>>that generate code itself, the resulting machine created code will run
>>in a GPLed envoriment. AFAIK although the wording of the GPL sounds like
>>linking of C/C++ programs the FSF has made a point that the licence
>>covers dynamic linking in interpreter languages (eg Java) and "scripting
>>languages" (eg PHP, Perl). So I deduce that the at least spirit of the
>>licence prohibits such "soft linking".
> 
> I'm not a license expert but would like to hear your opinion. What do you
> think about this one:
> http://www.contentmanager.de/magazin/news_h10378_universitaet_paderborn_integriert_realobjects.html

Well, if I continue my argument that a TYPO3 installation is to be seen 
as a single application - including the PHP and JS codes but also the 
generated (!) HTML (especially but not limited to the BE) - all code 
(PHP, JS, Java, Active X, Flash, ...) that interacts and/or is embedded 
to the application must follow the GPL.

But IANAL. Perhaps the FSF has some point to say on that. And maybe it's 
up to the laws of each country.

And it's some kind of grey zone anyway. Would the licence/TYPO3 require 
also binaries to be GPLed (eg imagmagick and tidy)? If not, one may want 
to argue that this means this "exemption" also applies to eg an RTE.

But I don't think so. A binary interacts with a well-defined interface. 
No hard or soft linking whatsoever occurs. An RTE OTOH must interact 
with numerous parts of TYPO3 to work properly. So IMHO it's not ok to 
include any non-GPL-compatible code in the BE and it's debatable if it's 
fine for the FE.

The question is, as I see it, if the 3rd party code uses any TYPO3 (so 
linking is evident) or if the "whole application" argument of me is 
enough to require licence compatibility. In the first case embedding 
some FE-JS code may be allowed, but not in the latter.

Masi

PS: As has been posted on the linked site the pricing of this RTE is 
incredibly high. The original RTE is not that bad to justifiy such a 
ridiculous high price.