NYCPHP Meetup

[Tim Gales]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org 
> [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org] On Behalf Of Mark Drago
> Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 1:18 AM
> To: NYPHP Talk
> Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] Releasing Code
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2004-09-24 at 19:44 -0400, Joseph Crawford wrote:
> > have you read the php license? if i am correct that license 
> will allow 
> > anyone to sell your code without anything you can do, you 
> might want 
> > to take a look at the GPL or LGPL licenses.  I mean if that is 
> > something you do not want happening.
> 
> This probably won't help the original poster answer any 
> questions, but your interpretation of the GPL is a little 
> off.  It is perfectly legal for anyone to take GPLed code and 
> sell it to someone else.  

That's not exactly true -- you cannot sell GPLed code.
You can charge a 'reasonable fee' for distributing it 
i.e. "You may charge a fee for the physical act of 
transferring a copy". 

> That is, I can take 'gcc' or 
> 'emacs' or anything else that is GPLed and sell it to someone 
> if I wanted.  The catch is that when I sell it I have to be 
> give the customer the source code if they want it, and they 
> can do whatever they want with it. 

Another condition of the license is that you must make 
the recipients of the work aware of the fact that it is being  
distributed under the GPL, i.e. "you [must] conspicuously 
and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate 
copyright notice..."

One of the reasons is "you must show them these terms so they 
know their rights". 

> Note that this is what 
> Red Hat does with their Red Hat Enterprise Linux and also the 
> reason that things like White Box Linux exist [1].
> 

Red Hat does not sell the code -- it sells support. 
(Red Hat describes what you can buy from them in a section 
entitled " GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS" in their 
'Subscription Agreement').

I don't believe Red Hat guarantees the software as 
described in the GPL agreement, i.e. " you may at 
your option offer warranty protection in exchange 
for a fee". 

The language at:
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html 

contains something pretty close to the following 
about whether the code will actually work or is of 
any value (merchantability): 

" provided and LICENSED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 
EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO 
THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY..." 

This means the code is (legally) worthless and reemphasizes 
the point that it is not the code which is being sold. 

T. Gales & Associates
'Helping People Connect with Technology'

http://www.tgaconnect.com