[Zope] Zope and the GPL poison pill

Magnus Alvestad magnus@websys.no
12 Sep 2000 21:07:41 +0200


[Danny William Adair]

| Now Nils and Oleg are giving me the creeps.

There are several issues here.

First, it is not obvious that including one GPL'ed product in a zope
site and then distributing that site obliges you to distribute any
further source code.  Only if you (embrace and) extend that specific
product would the GPL hit you.

Second, even if it does, remember that a zope site almost always
includes source anyway.  I guess the exception would be if you have
binary-only python files or linked pre-compiled c-code or something
like that.  But it would be very hard to claim that those parts were
'infected' by a product on your site being GPL'ed.

Third, you are only obligated to distribute source to parties you have
already distributed the binary version to.  I can't really see a
customer buying a zope site from you and not expecting 'source'
anyway.

-Magnus (I'm not a lawyer)