Re: PHPNuke license
Scripsit David Turner <novalis@novalis.org>
> I think that PHPNuke actually is applying (2)(c) correctly. The output
> of PHPNuke is derived from the HTML and Javascript input. In the case
> of Javascript in separate files, it's not even derived -- it's the
> original. It's clear that PHPNuke "reads commands interactively" in the
> sense of (2)(c).
However, if we accept the theory that the reader of the website is also
a user of the program (which does have something going for it), GPL
2(c) says that the notice must be displayed "when started running for
such interactive use in the most ordinary way". That would be on the
front page of the website (http://www.example.org/), but not
necessarily on each of the generated pages one sees *after* having
started browsing the site.
> *I don't see a problem if the notice were moved to another part of the
> site and HTML linked to.*
If it's GPL 2(c) we're talking about, hiding the notice away in an
about box would not fulfil the clause.
> (2)(c) merely states that they *could* have such a notice. Most of the
> coreutils aren't interactive. But for emacs, I think the (2)(c) notice
> is somewhere in the startup text.
If emacs is started with few enough arguments AND one doesn't have
(setq inhibit-startup-message t) or something equivalent in .emacs,
it will display the 2(c) notice in the editor window until the first
keypress is received.
Hmm, I wonder whether the GPL is supposed to allow a system
administrator to set the inhinit-startup-message variable from
his site startup file. That would to some extent be analogous to
configuring PHPNuke to not display the footer messages.
> > Which FSF staffer advocated this extremely broad interpretation of 2c?
> That would be me -- and it's not orthodoxy, just my intepretation.
> I've been wrong before. This paragraph is the only part of the
> message where I'm speaking for the FSF. I don't think the FSF has
> any position on any of this, and I'm not sure we want to.
Hm, you probably ought to be aware that the PHPNuke people seem to
have interpreted it as an authoritative statement from the FSF:
<http://phpnuke.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4947>
--
Henning Makholm "Slip den panserraket og læg
dig på jorden med ansigtet nedad!"
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