Re: [Phpsurveyor-developers] GPL and derivative works
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From: Jason C. <ja...@cl...> - 2007-04-17 23:26:51
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Hi Tom, My view is that it would be a derived product, and I'd only have issue with it being described that way if large slabs of the existing code were being used - and even if large slabs of code were being used, if you're licensing it under GPLv2 then so far as I'm aware you've met all the requirements of the original PHPSurveyor licensing, which is that you can use, redistribute, and so forth any of the PHPSurveyor project so long as it is passed on with the same licensing conditions. The GPL is designed to allow this sort of freedom, and it's main restriction is to stop anyone taking the code and closing it off with some kind of proprietary licensing scheme. Good luck with it :-) Jason -----Original Message----- From: php...@li... [mailto:php...@li...] On Behalf Of Tom Tuddenham Sent: Monday, 16 April 2007 7:52 PM To: php...@li... Subject: [Phpsurveyor-developers] GPL and derivative works Hey gang I have an interesting issue vis-a-vis RubySurveyor (http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubysurveyor/), my Ruby on Rails "clone" of PhpSurveyor. It's only early days in the project and I'm a million miles away from a working system, but before I go too far down the track I'd like to make sure everything is all above board. I'm planning on licensing it under the GPL v2 - the same licence as PhpSurveyor. It seems reasonable, given that it's inspired by another GPL'd project, but it's also IMHO a better licence anyway than the typical Ruby Licence. Beyond this though is the question of copyright. Is RubySurveyor a "derived" product, in the GPL sense of the word, or is it an independent project that shares some characteristics with another? It uses the same data structures, so in one sense it is definitely a derived product, but it written in a completely different language. The position I've taken is that because of the fundamental difference in implementation RubySurveyor is a separate work and therefore the copyright doesn't need to be assigned back to the group per se. I'm also assuming that everyone is cool with that, given that the app will be available under the same licensing model as PhpSurveyor. If anyone has problems please let me know. Any other advice on the GPL and the issue of derived works greatly appreciated. Cheers Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ PHPSurveyor-Developers mailing list PHP...@li... https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/phpsurveyor-developers |