[Zope-dev] ZPL and GPL

[Michael R. Bernstein]

On 26 Jun 2001 23:37:25 +0200, Erik Enge wrote:
> On 26 Jun 2001, Michael R. Bernstein wrote:
> 
> > DC has been up-fron about how they make money. They do so by selling
> > development services using Zope as a toolkit/platform.
> 
> Yes, and forcing those paying customers to use GPL is very hard (and not
> very nice, either).

Um. Even if Zope was GPL'd, DC's customers would only be 'forced' to do
anything if they redistributed Zope, as opposed to just using it
themselves. If DC makes custom changes to Zope for a customer, even DC
would only be 'forced' to give the source to those changes to *that*
customer which they presumably would do anyway.

> > Well, I guess the issue is whether you think that redistribution of a
> > proprietary version of Zope itself is a good or bad thing.
> 
> No, that's not the issue, since I don't believe there will ever be a large
> successfull proprietary version of Zope.  I think that is where we differ
> in opinions.  Which is something that can only be tested by applying time
> on it :).

I'm a worry-wart :-) Better safe than sorry.

> > As a possible scenario, let's suppose that someone wanted to create a
> > content mangement solution for the southeast asian market.
> 
> I just don't think it would be very successfull.  Zope isn't the type of
> application that would be great as a closed-source one.  I just can't see
> that happen; maybe I'm too naive.

And maybe I'm too suspicious. Time will tell.

Michael Bernstein.