Licenses etc. (was: Re: [antlr-interest] Re: Antlr Studio iscool.)

Anthony Youngman Anthony.Youngman at eca-international.com
Thu Sep 22 06:30:49 PDT 2005


That may be its *effect* (preventing derivative code from being
redistributed
under any license except the GPL), but that's not what - in law -
actually happens (nor does it have anything to do with the GPL's aims,
either :-).

If I combine my code with somebody else's GPL code, then the only way I
can distribute the resulting product is to provide my code under the GPL
too. There's nothing to stop me selling *my code only* under a different
licence and, indeed, I could get round this GPL thingy by providing my
code only as a patchset, and under a licence of my choice. In that case,
my customers would have to apply my patch to the GPL source and, because
they had no right to redistribute my code, they would be unable to
distribute the resulting patched product (they have broken no rules by
creating the product, but the requirements for them to distribute are
mutually incompatible, so they can't distribute).

As you say, though, this is the cleverness of the GPL, in that it
*guarantees* that users will always have the source of their products
and will also mostly have the right to modify and fix them (in my
scenario, they might not have the right to modify my code).

The GPL is a very clever licence. It's also very tricky to understand
correctly :-). I've been hit many times by clue-sticks and think I now
do understand it ... but I'm sure someone will have good cause to hit me
with another clue-stick at some point.

The problem is that the GPL's aims are often misunderstood, what it
achieves is often misunderstood, and the way it achieves it is often
misunderstood. And as they say on Groklaw, "law is like programming.
details are important".

Oh - and read the GPL - you said "the GPL allowed anyone to sell the
software at cost". If you read the GPL you will find it *ex*plicitly
allows you to sell the software at *any* cost *you* *like*. It's
economics that says you're unlikely to find many customers if you charge
a thousand dollars, not the GPL. As I said, the detail is important :-)

Cheers,
Wol

-----Original Message-----
From: antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org
[mailto:antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org] On Behalf Of Nigel
Sheridan-Smith
Sent: 22 September 2005 14:13
To: antlr-interest at antlr.org
Subject: RE: Licenses etc. (was: Re: [antlr-interest] Re: Antlr Studio
iscool.)



> -----Original Message-----
> From: antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org [mailto:antlr-interest-
> bounces at antlr.org] On Behalf Of Anthony Youngman
> Sent: Thursday, 22 September 2005 6:47 PM
> To: Kay Roepke; Jose San Leandro
> Cc: antlr-interest at antlr.org
> Subject: RE: Licenses etc. (was: Re: [antlr-interest] Re: Antlr Studio
> iscool.)
> 
> What the GPL does (and is intended to do) is stop *you* selling *my*
> work (and cutting me out of the loop).
> 

Actually, my understanding was that the GPL allowed anyone to sell the
software at cost, but prevented derivative code from being redistributed
under any license except the GPL. You are free to modify the code for
your
own purposes, but you cannot redistribute it to anyone else (at profit,
or
at no cost) unless you can provide them the source code for the
modifications upon request. This guarantees the "freedom" of all of the
users, who will always have access to the source code for the original
product, and all derivative products that are redistributed.


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