Re: PHPNuke license
On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:12:41AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This is in /usr/share/doc/phpnuke/copyright:
>
> Note from upstream author:
>
> ##############################################################################
> # I M P O R T A N T N O T E #
> ##############################################################################
> # IMPORTANT: I saw many sites that removes the copyright line in the footer #
> # of each page. YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE NOR CHANGE/EDIT THAT NOTE. If I #
> # still see this problem happening I'll need to take extreme measures that #
> # can include: to change the PHP-Nuke license, to encrypt some parts of the #
> # code, stop distributing it for free and in an extreme case stop developing #
> # it. The decision is in your hands. #
> # If you do not agreed with this simple rule, delete all PHP-Nuke files #
> # right now and move away from it. Thanks. #
> ##############################################################################
>
> I think this is not good for the same reason as the BSD advertising clause.
>
> The notice is:
>
> "Web site engine's code is Copryight (C) 2002 by PHP-Nuke. All Rights
> Reserved. PHP-Nuke is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license."
>
> This would seem to also prohibit modifications and derived works, since a
> proper copyright notice would reflect the status of the modifier.
PHP-Nuke's license is ambiguous. I don't like it at all. Here's
a sample culled from footer.php
/************************************************************************/
/* PHP-NUKE: Advanced Content Management System */
/* ============================================ */
/* */
/* Copyright (c) 2002 by Francisco Burzi */
/* http://phpnuke.org */
/* */
/* This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify */
/* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by */
/* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License. */
/************************************************************************/
So it appears that he doesn't apply the GPL properly, but at
least we see his intent. Of course, unlike Bison, Francisco does not
exempt the output of his program, which contains snippets of clear-text
HTML and JavaScript within. Therefore, I suspect most people
using PHP-Nuke are in violation of Section 0 of its license.
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
This, of course, means that people who run PHP-Nuke must have
their webpages licensed as a whole under the GNU GPL. It also implies
that they need to reproduce the copyright notices in the output, perhaps
as HTML comments up at the top. This all seems rather silly though,
since the author has obviously not understood the license he has
applied.
Could the maintainer of PHP-Nuke please have a little chat with
the author?
Simon
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