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diff --git a/pipermail/nel/2001-December/000806.html b/pipermail/nel/2001-December/000806.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f8e77ecb --- /dev/null +++ b/pipermail/nel/2001-December/000806.html @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> +<HTML> + <HEAD> + <TITLE> GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</TITLE> + <LINK REL="Index" HREF="index.html" > + <LINK REL="made" HREF="mailto:archer%40frmug.org"> + <LINK REL="Previous" HREF="000804.html"> + <LINK REL="Next" HREF="000808.html"> + </HEAD> + <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> + <H1>GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</H1> + <B>Vincent Archer</B> + <A HREF="mailto:archer%40frmug.org" + TITLE="GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question">archer@frmug.org</A><BR> + <I>Fri, 14 Dec 2001 10:19:52 +0100</I> + <P><UL> + <LI> Previous message: <A HREF="000804.html">GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</A></li> + <LI> Next message: <A HREF="000808.html">GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#806">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#806">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#806">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#806">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + <HR> +<!--beginarticle--> +<PRE>According to Kai Schutte: +><i> On Thursday 13 December 2001 09:49, Vincent Archer wrote: +</I>><i> > Whenever you get a GPLed program (and the license on the NeL library +</I>><i> > is such that a program linked to it must be GPL too), under any form, +</I>><i> > you must also be able to access/request/get a copy of the source. +</I>><i> > +</I>><i> > So anybody who has a Ryzom client has the right to access the source. +</I>><i> > +</I>><i> > Of course, until there IS an official client, almost no one outside +</I>><i> > Nevrax has that right :) +</I>><i> +</I>><i> I don't want to drag this out eternally, but I see a little lapse of +</I>><i> reasoning. Technically speaking, the development version of Ryzom is probably +</I>><i> currently being linked and tested with NeL, therefore, Ryzom must inherit the +</I>><i> GPL. +</I>><i> Therefore, the current development code is in the public domain, therefore +</I>><i> should be published. Of course, I understand your need to keep Ryzom "secret" +</I>><i> until it is done, releasable and sellable, so that you can put food on your +</I>><i> plates (and buy big cars for your Venture Capital people), yet, isn't this +</I>><i> secrecy a violation of the GPL, since Ryzom is GPL'd? +</I> +It is not. A violation that is. + +I know the GPL is an awful amount of legalese, and, like any legal-jargon +document, people chiefly know its intent, and not its phrasing. + +But the GPL does not force you to release anything. + +What the GPL forces you is that, *if* you release any GPL program/library, +its sources MUST be available (and describes the minimum requirement for +this availability, i.e. you can't claim the sources are available but you +need to come to the Tuvalu Islands, wait 3 months of quarantine, and read +them on a dot-matrix printer listing with surgical gloves on). + +Note the "if". + +As long as *you* don't have a Ryzom client, *you* are not entitled to ask +for the sources. A company may very well decide to take a GPL piece of +software, and use it to write a program it uses internally, and no one +can come up front and ask for that program's sources. If the company +uses it internally only, the only legal obligation of source disclosure +is to the people who have the program, i.e. its own employees. + +Of course, the example shown above works as long as the program remains +inside. Other parts of the GPL allow any employee to pick the internal +programs, use it to write its own GPL variation, and distribute said +variation outside of the company, distributing the base source in the +same way, and there's nothing the company could do to prevent exposure. + +But, in Nevrax's case, it's not important, since the program will end +up available to the public, and when it does, the sources will be. + +><i> Wouldn't it be better then, for Nevrax, if NeL was LGPL, and thereby making +</I>><i> it legal (or rather, in accordance to the GPL) for you to keep Ryzom from +</I>><i> public eyes? +</I> +As long as no one outside of Nevrax has Ryzom, the strictures of the GPL +are respected. + +Yeah, I know, we're impatient :) +-- + Vincent Archer Email: <A HREF="mailto:archer@frmug.org">archer@frmug.org</A> + +All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates. + (Woody Allen) + +</pre> + + + + + + + +<!--endarticle--> + <HR> + <P><UL> + <!--threads--> + <LI> Previous message: <A HREF="000804.html">GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</A></li> + <LI> Next message: <A HREF="000808.html">GPL specifics -- was: [Nel] Gamer question</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#806">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#806">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#806">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#806">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> +</body></html> |