[Shinken-devel] Shinken Licensing

[Ethan G. <ega...@na...>]

I'm just joinging the list, so I can't reply to previous messages as 
normal, so I'll quote one of the recent replies regarding licensing...

nap:
> LOL, so funny, make me nearly fall from my chair :)
>
> You do not really know what Shinken is isn't it? When I say it's a
> fork, I do not mean I take Nagios code, change the licence (and I'm
> totally agree that's not possible to change Nagios license, hopefully
> ;) ) and say : "Hey, I'm totally something totally different". I did
> not "steal" code (even if I do not like the "steal" usage in a open
> source context).
>
> No.
>
> It's a TOTAL reimplementation of the code! I do not take a SINGLE line
> of the Nagios code. Only the documentation (in fact the doc from
> monitoring-fr, you know, the ex nagios-fr...) and this part got a
> LICENSE file of GPLV2. (you should look at this docbook documentation,
> very good docbook format by the way).
>

There is no "documentation" that references in detail how to 
programmatically process timeperiod logic for Nagios Core, yet somehow 
this managed to be magically "re-implemented" in the Shinken Python 
code.   Pixie dust must be flying on someone's network to have made that 
happen.

"Re-implementation" when referencing pre-existing code is still covered 
under copyright laws and protects the original copyright holders.  There 
is code all around Shinken that could not have been developed without 
having looked at the C code for Nagios Core as the reference.  Downtime, 
macros, timeperiod logic, and other Shinken Python code makes it clear 
that the C code from Nagios Core was used as a reference when 
"re-implementing" Nagios Core.

This type of "re-implementation" to a different language with a license 
switch would clearly be considered copyright infringement and you could 
find yourself in deep trouble.  Since Nagios Core is GPL, you have 
rights to modify it, but you're required to release those changes/mods 
under the same license.  The GPL doesn't grant you rights to 
re-implement under a different license when you use the original GPL 
code as a reference.

Since Shinken was "re-implemented" using the Nagios Core code as a 
reference, it cannot be release under the AGPL - it must be released 
under the GPL license.

You don't have rights to change the GPL license associated with Nagios 
Core without getting permission from every person who has contributed to 
the Nagios Core code over the past decade.   Neither do I.  Those are 
the rules - plain and simple.

If you're going to live in the world of intellectual property, you need 
to understand the rules that you have to abide by.  Just because you're 
an "Open Source" guy doesn't mean you have any right to violate licenses 
as you see fit or make the rules up as you go.


Ethan Galstad
President
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