Danny William Adair wrote:
Hi all!
Now Nils and Oleg are giving me the creeps. Is it not possible to take a few GPLed Zope products, add your own effort of configuring, integrating, building, (re-)designing, and even documenting the outcome of your efforts and - ___sell___ this? Maybe not only to _one_ customer, but burn a CD and sell it to _a couple_ of customers?
Yes, you can. BUT, you must make the source code available.
In my opinion (yes, opinion has nothing to do with lawyers and courts ;-)), in this case you wouldn't be selling other people's products, no you would have created something new, which ___you___ can put a copyright on. It's a compilation, and with enough value-adding effort put in to this compilation, none of the respective GPL authors could claim to be co-author of your production. Since you don't want to (only) sell your service of deploying, but also your new product. (product in its conventional meaning, I would call a Zope product a "module" in this respect)
This is exactly why I decided to GPL my FreePM project. A company with deeper pockets for marketing and more presence in the marketplace could take my work (under some of the other licenses ) and use it to their own gain. Under the GPL, they must make their source available too. The GPL is not a cure all. But it certainly has it's place.
But as one of the people who respect your freedom, I will do all my best to protect your freedom (in the way that do not limit my freedom). You are free to use my code, to read it and patch it, to send me your patches or to fork the code. AND FINALLY YOUR ARE FREE TO *ignore* MY CODE!
But please, please! If you respect my freedom - do not ask me to change the license. I love GPL and found it pretty suitable for my needs.
Oleg.
Exactly! <g> -- Tim Cook -- Cook Information Systems | Office: (901) 884-4126 8am-5pm CDT * Specializing in Open Source Business Systems * FreePM Project Coordinator http://www.freepm.org OSHCA Founding Supporter http://www.oshca.org