Re: The GPL and you
Quoting Daniel Isacc Walker (dwalker@cats.ucsc.edu):
> License conflict? Like it's not illegal but it's a taboo?
No. {sigh}
Once again: Read the GPL.
Under GPLv2 clause 6, your permission to redistribute a covered work
(including derivative works) is conditioned on your imposing no further
restrictions on recipients than GPLv2's own terms. The PHP licence
includes one term that trivially restricts users (regarding the names
of their projects). Thus, derivative works that incorporate PHP and
GPLv2-licensed code have requirements that conflict: We speak of such
works as being in licence conflict.
Since your permission to distribute GPL-encumbered derivative works (such
as your PHP glue code linked to the PHP interpreter and to the
talkfilters library) rests on your NOT imposing further restrictions
beyond those of GPLv2, since you cannot avoid one such restriction, you
may not distribute the derivative work. Your doing so -- or anyone else
doing so who received his copy of talkfilters subject to GPLv2[1] --
constitutes (technically) the tort of copyright violation against the
talkfilters author.
By contrast, distributing your PHP glue code by itself violates nobody
else's rights[2]. Distributing talkfilters by itself violates nobody's
rights. Distributing the PHP interpreter by itself violates nobody's
rights. Distributing all three of them on the same CD-ROM violates
nobody's rights ("mere aggregation").
Somebody _using_ any or all of those codebases violates nobody's rights.
(Neither GPLv2 nor the PHP licence regulates code usage.)
[1] You can receive and use a codebase that's GPL-licensed without
accepting that licence: If you've lawfully received any piece of
programming code, you have certain implied rights by statute, including
the right to run it. However, as GPLv2 clause 5 points out, nothing
then gives you the right to redistribute or to create derivative works,
rights that are reserved to the copyright owner by default.
[2] Assuming your permission grant for that code allows that. You've
not mentioned what licence terms you specify for that code.
--
Cheers, "Cthulhu loves me, this I know; because the High Priests tell me so!
Rick Moen He won't eat me, no, not yet. He's my Elder God, dank and wet!"
rick@linuxmafia.com
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