Re: [Open Babel] (no subject)

[Geoff H. <ghu...@ws...>]

> Please answer my question to help me to overcome the
>  confusion i got into while i was reading the Open Babel FAQ3.2 What's 
> in
> it for me as an academic?
...
> Generaly GPL provides the rights to the user of GPLed or free software
> to distribute it any way he wants, why Open Babel FAQ states that "no
> one can distribute it commercialy without your agreement?"

The FAQ needs a little bit of editing. That should say "proprietarily" 
rather than "commercially." You are correct that most people equate 
commercial software as proprietary -- because most commercial software 
*is* proprietary.

So yes, as a user of Open Babel, you can distribute the GPL'ed software 
however you choose--as long as the source code is available in some 
form.

But no one can "lock up" your source code into a proprietary product 
without violating the GPL.

Hopefully that clears things up for you? I'll edit the FAQ.

Cheers,
-Geoff