[Typo3-dev] Non-GPL licence on a GPL extension

[Dimitri Tarassenko]

On 11/24/05, Martin Kutschker <Martin.Kutschker at n0spam-blackbox.net> wrote:

> > Incorrect. Any custom code that you CHOOSE to distribute (and you
> > don't have to) has to be GPL'ed.
>
> Why would the user be exempt from the licence?!!

The user is not exempt. The GPL only states that *IF* you want to
distribute your modifications, they have to be GPL. GPL does not force
you to distribute them.

> Everyone including developers and the end users have to obey the licence
> rules which say no to linking with non-GPL compatible code.

They don't say that. They only say that *IF* you want to distribute
derivative work it has to be GPL licensed as a whole.

Your case is even weaker than you think, since GPL explicitly says:
"In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the
Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a
volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other
work under the scope of this License." You can interpret this as "your
extensions and TER *CAN* contain aggregated non-GPL pieces", since
both TER and tarballs of the extensions are, in some sense,
distribution media.

You can debate whether using flash movies from PHP is "linking" or
"aggregation", now, but
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic
(in my opinion) leans towars the latter.

> If the user could mix GPL and non-GPL code there would be no point in
> using the GPL at all.

Wrong. Noone prohibits you from taking GPL-licensed product, modifying
it as you see fit (including "mixing" it with non-GPL code) and using
it. You can't distribute it further, though, unless you are able to
relicense the whole thing under GPL.

> IMHO the mentiond ways to "avoid" the GPL-linkage problem are a) no
> solution as they breach the licence and b) clearly against the spirit of
> the GPL.

Spirit schmirit. ;) "clearly against the spirit" is your personal
judgement, so let's leave it aside. Show me where does it say in GPL
that I can't build an extension that links WebTrends (a commercially
licensed web analytics software) or Kayako (PHP-based support center)
to Typo3 and use it internally on my own servers?

> In short, if you (as a developer) don't like the GPL, don't use it and
> stick to non-GPLed frameworks.
> The freedom of the GPL has it's price. But it's one worth paying.

I hear you. Let's just not overstretch and claim that GPL says what
you want it to say when it doesn't, ok?

--
Dimitri Tarassenko