[Zope] Zope and the GPL poison pill

[Nils Kassube]

phd@phd.russ.ru (Oleg Broytmann) wrote:

>    No, you are not forced to publish anything. GPL "virus" applied only if
> you want to *distribute* combined (your code + my GPL'd code).

Like in "distributing to clients"? So that I have to publish
source code to the whole world (not only clients) then? 

From: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html

--cut--
Copyleft also helps programmers who want to contribute improvements to
free software get permission to do that. These programmers often work
for companies or universities that would do almost anything to get more
money. A programmer may want to contribute her changes to the community,
but her employer may want to turn the changes into a proprietary
software product.

When we explain to the employer that it is illegal to distribute the
improved version except as free software, the employer usually decides
to release it as free software rather than throw it away.

To copyleft a program, first we copyright it; then we add distribution
terms, which are a legal instrument that gives everyone the rights to
use, modify, and redistribute the program's code or any program derived
from it but only if the distribution terms are unchanged. Thus, the code
and the freedoms become legally inseparable. 
--cut--

How do I separate my work inside a Zope-based application from GPL'ed 
pieces to prevent this from happening? Looks like a lot of trouble.

It's easy to deal with GPL'ed programs like gcc, but how do you handle
GPL'ed components in a complex object oriented environment? I'm not
a lawyer, I'm (want to be) a software engineer, so what are my options?
Risk a lawsuit from a GPL-using author or rewrite from scratch.

Cheers,
Nils
--
nika@acm.org
nika@kassube.de (preferred)
4kassube@informatik.uni-hamburg.de