[TYPO3-english] Extensions potentially violating the GPL

Kay Strobach typo3 at kay-strobach.de
Fri Dec 17 11:52:40 CET 2010


Hi Dimitry,

Am 17.12.2010 10:39, schrieb Dmitry Dulepov:
> Hi!
> 
> Kay Strobach wrote:
>> I do not think changing the TER rules solves this Problem.
> 
> Please, explain your point of view :)
> 

nothing easier than that:

1) The main Message of TYPO3 is "Inspiring people to share"
2) Currently most extensions do not contain license information - so
   they are thought to be GPL (as the author confirmed by registering
   the license key) - but some are not
3) consistency - the core is GPL so all work depending on the core
   (e.g. using core libraries) is automatically GPL code.
4) Most people think "Ohh Opensource - extensions are opensource too"
   because of GPL -> is connected with 1)

Using the package_manager and perhaps lateron a hook in extMGM would
solve that because the author could include additional components after
installation, which do not fit the GPL without publishing them in TER.
So the association does not harm any intellectual property by publishing
third person work under the GPL.

Having the hooks it should be easily possible to show "warnings" about
non GPL code and license information in the TER (and lateron in the extMGM)

The other point of view is to ensure the development of extensions after
the original authors interest on an extension is gone. So others can
contribute to the extension and ensure the further development. This can
not be ensured with closed source.

Here is how it was done with Joomla JED:
http://community.joomla.org/blogs/leadership/636-jed-to-be-gpl-only-by-july-2009.html

I'm creating extension to earn money on my own and I'm paid for
features, but anyway i mostly publish them in TER (some times with a
delay) and most customers allow that after short explanation what
opensource is about. But sure there some business relevant parts of
projects, which are not public.

Best regards
Kay


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