[TYPO3-english] Extensions potentially violating the GPL

[Christopher Torgalson]

Hi,

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 11:06 AM, Tonix (Antonio Nati)
<tonix at interazioni.it> wrote:
> Il 17/12/2010 16:27, Georg Ringer ha scritto:
>>
>> Am 17.12.2010 16:16, schrieb Tonix (Antonio Nati):
>>>
>>> Oh, really? I do not see anything forcing me to sell extensions that
>>> way. The most you can pretend is I cannot load those extensions in TER.
>>
>> it is the GPL license which forces you to put anything under GPL (or
>> compatible) license. Any extension which depends on the core *must* be
>> under GPL, there is *no* other way.
>
> This is your idea of GPL.
>
> I'm writing PHP libraries which are indipendent of typo3, and my extensions
> call both typo3 and indipendent libraries.
> So, extensions can be forced to be GPL, but my external libraries not,
> because they are called from extensions and do not rely at all on any TYPO3
> feature and live outside typo3.
>
> I can do whatever I want of these libraries, despite you GPL ideas.
>
> I could not imagine how much people wants to limit freedom in name of GPL!


Well, first of all this is precisely what what the LGPL is for. Read
back in the thread for a very clear explanation.

Secondly, the GPL does the things described by others in this thread
*by desgin*. It's foolish to debate whether or not a TYPO3 extension
should be licensed under the GPL because, being entirely dependent on
a piece of GPL software to merely operate, it can't possibly *not* be
GPL licensed.

It's amusing that you contort what you've read in this thread to say
that people wish to limit freedom in the name of the GPL. The only
freedom that's limited is that of software authors, in that if they
release their work under the GPL, they *must* abide by certain
conditions. Even this is not a severe limitation in that developers
remain free to write code or use frameworks with different licenses
(this does not include writing wholly closed components for GPL
frameworks...)

Software *users* have gained inestimably from the GPL, and if you're
fighting against the GPL, you're fighting the people who use your
software. Not smart.

-- 
Christopher Torgalson
http://www.typo3apprentice.com/