Re: Distributing Pipmak with a commercial game?

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

James Wilson wrote:
> Just wanted to get something clear; is it possible to distribute Pipmak 
> with a commercial project, to make it standalone? And please don't refer 
> me to the GNU license. I can't make heads nor tails of it. Please just 
> say yes or no and why, if that's possible.

Yes. Because I say so. ;)

Your project is not a "work based on" Pipmak (in the same way that an 
interpreted program is not based on the interpreter, see 
<http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL>), 
and shipping Pipmak together with your project constitutes a "mere 
aggregation", so you are not required to license your project under the 
GPL. You can license it under any terms you want. At least that's my 
understanding of the GPL, and it's the way I want Pipmak to be licensed. 
I want Pipmak to be used as widely as possible, so I encourage its use 
in commercial projects.

On the other hand, if you modify Pipmak itself, you have to license the 
modified Pipmak under the GPL, i.e. make its source available so that 
everyone can benefit from your improvements. I don't want anyone to make 
some small improvements to Pipmak and then sell it, making money from 
what is mainly my work.

If some lawyer disagrees with my interpretation of the GPL, let me know 
and I'll add an exception, but I currently believe that none is necessary.

  -Christian