Re: [Geoserver-devel] Comment on licensing

[Ben Caradoc-D. <Ben...@cs...>]

I think what Jody is saying is that you can shield your core code from 
the GPL by building it on GeoTools, not GeoServer. Jody is also 
suggesting that you could make some GPL contributions to GeoServer to 
get WPS to work. This would not affect your proprietary code.

It is important to not be too scared by the GPL: it only affects 
*derivative* works. The GPL obtains all its power from the copyright law 
concept of a derivative work, and if you do not derive from another's 
work, you are not bound by their licence. Bundling code with a GPL work 
does not make the bundled code GPL. Code that communicates with GPL code 
via an interface is not infected. Take, for example, the many 
proprietary modules available for the Linux kernel (GPL). Conformance to 
an interface does not define a derivative work, because your code would 
also work with other code that accepted modules conforming to that 
interface. Extending or modifying GPL code would require you to license 
your code and changes under the GPL.

I am not a lawyer, but these issues have been debated at length by those 
who are.

Kind regards,
Ben.


On 11/12/09 13:52, steven citron-pousty wrote:
> I am not exactly sure what this means:
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Jody Garnett<jod...@gm...<mailto:jod...@gm...>>  wrote:
>
> With that in mind would your company be happy with the idea of
> bringing up the GPL Process community module to speed, while working
> your custom processes against the LGPL GeoTools library?
>
>
> But I am not going to start writing WPS or an OpenLS OWS service right now. I am more doing due diligence as we get ready to chose platforms to extend and work with. I may do some work on my own time - in which case GPL is not a problem, but for company work I can't do the GPL.
>
> Does that make sense?
> Steve
>


-- 
Ben Caradoc-Davies <Ben...@cs...>
Software Engineer, CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering
Australian Resources Research Centre
26 Dick Perry Ave, Kensington WA 6151, Australia