Re: hypothitical nonfree question
On 11 Jul 2001 09:48:11 +1000
Brian May <bam@debian.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Lets say I am writing a frontend (call it X), to a GPL package
> (eg. gnupg), and want to be a prick and disallow commercial use. This
> runs gnupg by forking and execing it and supplying STDIN while reading
> STDOUT.
>
> Does the GPL allow this?
[and that and this ... ]
If I were a judge, i would say no, since your intent is obviously to
create a derivative work. Even more if you require to patch gnupg in
order to use your front end.
I believe the technique used to communicate with GnuPG is not very
revelant, what you're really trying to do is revelant.
I don't believe the plugin analogy is correct either. First in this case
this is the reverse: the non gpl code forking the gpl code). Then in the
plugin case, the program can work without the plugin, in your
case not.
Imagine if gnupg was composed of a GPL library and a command line
frontend. You would probably like to use the library directly, but you
won't be able under the GPL terms. You could see the Vidomi/VirtualDub
case as an example of the complexity of the problem.
Yeah... all this is obviously my interpretation of the case. And I would
use your product as if GPLed.
Anyway what do you mean with commercial use of your product? Do you mean
you would forbid people ti use it at work? Would you forbid RedHat
people from signing their official press release with your tool? Or
would you only forbid to use your tool to sign software products?
And keep in mind that if you find a way to add restrictions
(nocommercial use) not allowed by the GPL to your product this means you
could use the same way to distribute your program under a fully
commercial license... Just what vidomi did...
--
Fabrice Gautier <gautier@email.enstfr>
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