Re: PHPNuke license

[David Turner <novalis@novalis.org>]

On Mon, 2003-03-03 at 21:06, John Goerzen wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 05:58:32PM -0500, David Turner wrote:
> > Additionally. PHPNuke *isn't* merely an underlying tool -- its
> > copyrighted layout, graphics, HTML, and Javascript are included in its
> > output.  
> 
> By simply switching the theme, you could arrive at a situation where there
> is little or no recognizable PHPNuke code in the output.  I think your
> statement, therefore, is quite a stretch.

Nonetheless, the GPL has this requirement.  Maybe that makes it
non-free, but only if the program exercises its (2)(c) rights.

> Even so, you seem to be ignoring my analysis at:
> 
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/debian-legal-200303/msg00002.html

I prefer to confine my derision to people I didn't vote for, but if you
insist...

> Are you really asserting that a single program can be both interactive and
> engaging in an act of redistributing its source code at the same time?
> 
> That sounds ludicrous and farfetched to me, given that both statements, by
> themselves, are already farfetched in this circumstance.

(2)(c) concerns the act of modification.  Altering the program to remove
copyright notices is modification.  This is not ludicrous nor
farfetched.  The only question. then, is whether the program is
interactive.  

Dictionary.com says of interactive:
2 /Computer Science/. Of or relating to a program that responds to user
activity.

Foldoc goes into more detail:

>From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02) [foldoc]:

  interactive
  
     <programming> A term describing a program whose input and
     output are interleaved, like a conversation, allowing the
     user's input to depend on earlier output from the same run.
  
     The interaction with the user is usually conducted through
     either a text-based interface or a {graphical user interface}.
     Other kinds of interface, e.g. using {speech recognition}
     and/or {speech synthesis}, are also possible.
  
     This is in contrast to {batch} processing where all the input
     is prepared before the program runs and so cannot depend on
     the program's output.
  
     (1996-06-21)

----------

I don't see any reason that a web application should be considered
non-interactive.


-- 
-Dave Turner                     Stalk Me: 617 441 0668

"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters 
of principle, stand like a rock." -Thomas Jefferson