Re: xchat is now shareware in windoze
> Raul Miller writes:
> > On Wed, Oct 20, 2004 at 03:19:41PM +0200, Giacomo A. Catenazzi wrote:
> > > Note: source is GPL, but for windoze binaries it is *required*
> > > a registration.
> >
> > After looking at this for a bit, and thinking about it, it looks like
> > the shareware is a distribution charge, which is allowed under the GPL.
On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 03:16:38PM -0400, Michael Poole wrote:
> It is not a distribution charge; it is a charge on continued use,
> which is not allowed under the GPL.
He seems to be giving away the source, and has no problem with people
using it.
If that were the case, this would be a charge on continued use of that
distribution, not on continued use of the Program.
> The shareware version does not provide source code for things like the
> key checker (required by the GPL), does not provide a script or
> directions for linking against a different version of gtk+ (required
> by the LGPL), and apparently omits copyright notices (required by the
> GPL, LGPL and the OpenSSL libraries used). Unless the license texts
> are embedded in a prominent part of the "shareware" xchat.exe
> executable, they are not included in the shareware version, so users
> do not know what the licenses really are.
If the key checker is a part of the program, this is a rather serious
problem.
Of course, combining GPLed code and OpenSSL code was also a problem,
last time I checked.
> > Note that this has some implications about the rights of users of xchat,
> > whether or not they register their shareware. [Users who wish to
> > redistribute are allowed to, as long as they satsify GPL's requirements.]
>
> Users cannot satisfy the GPL's requirements for redistribution, since
> they do not have the source code to rebuild the key-checking code, and
> they do not have scripts or directions to build minigtk.dll.
Which means he's not satisfying GPL's requirements either, for the
stuff other people hold copyrights on.
Ouch.
--
Raul
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