Is this software really GPL?
Sorry if this is not quite the right place, but I'm somewhat fuming ...
There's a really nice piece of software, called QM (it's a database)
that has allegedly been released under the GPL by its owner, one Martin
Philips, of a company called Ladybridge, in England.
He was talked into doing this by a company called EasyCo, based in the
States.
I joined the mailing list, and then there was a post saying that some of
the code was invariant. When I said that the GPL said I could change it,
Martin said that if I tried he would set the lawyers on me! (And no, I'm
not fuming at Martin - I get the impression he's been duped :-(
Anyways, I'm having rather a set-to on email with EasyCo about the
licencing. They pointed me at two web pages, an "about openQM" and a
"FAQ" page. Here.
<quote>
I strongly suggest that you read the following two web pages:
http://easyco.com/initiative/openqm/opensource/index.htm
and the accompanying faq:
http://easyco.com/initiative/openqm/opensource/faq.htm
</quote>
Bear in mind they are talking about a program that is allegedly
dual-licenced. Commercial and GPL. SOMEBODY needs larting with a
clue-by-four (if it's me, please do - I'd like to know why!). Except my
emails with EasyCo so far give me the impression I'm dealing with a SCO
lawyer - I wonder why ... I talk about distributing *source*, so they
quote clause *3* of the GPL at me ... Oh - and I just happened to have
quoted clauses 6 and 7 at them at the time ...
Bear in mind this platform includes a compiler. I'm told it's a
compiler/linker, but the commercial equivalents I know of aren't, and
the LGPL equivalent I'm writing most certainly isn't. To my mind, a
compiler/linker implementation is a pretty big design blunder ...
I'd better not say more except to tell you to look for what they say
about "the purpose of the GPL", about "incitement to distribute", and
distribution to franchisees/subsidiaries.
Oh - and the guy I'm dealing with said he would be absolutely delighted
if someone could get Debian to distribute this package!
Cheers,
Wol
--
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
HEX wondered how much he should tell the Wizards. He felt it would not be a
good idea to burden them with too much input. Hex always thought of his reports
as Lies-to-People.
The Science of Discworld : (c) Terry Pratchett 1999
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