PanoTools:
Re: copyright violation?
Roger Howard 2004-Sep-09 18:45:06
On Sep 9, 2004, at 8:45 AM, Thomas Niemann wrote:
> In other words, Max Lyons (PTAssembler), Joost Nieuwenhuijse (PTGui),
> Kekus
> (PTMac), and me (PTLens), are all violating the law?
It certainly seems so - as someone with an interest, but who also
appreciates the work you guys have done, I've held off from raising
this question but it certainly seems you're under an obligation to ship
source to anyone you distribute a binary to (note, GPL doesn't require
you to distribute source to ANYONE, just people you distribute a binary
to - of course, nothing prevents *them* from redistributing the
source). Your products are clearly derivative works under the
definition of GPL - no offense intended by any means - and there's
little way around that.
This is the cost - and benefit, in fact - of working with the GPL.
You've benefitted from the GPL status of the PT libraries (as, of
course, have the rest of the users) and must live up to the well known
requirements.
Now, if you really can't imagine providing source, the one out you *do*
have is getting a non-GPL license from Helmut - he can relicense his
code under any license he wants alongside the GPL license generally
used. But the problem with this will be trying to maintain a
distinction between the GPL and non-GPL branches once they begin
diverging (I would expect immediately), especially if anyone working on
the GPL branch contributes code/fixes to the GPL branch that you'd like
to incorporate.
Best,
Roger
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