[ale] A licensing question...

[Transam]

On Wed, Jan 22, 2003 at 11:47:18AM -0500, John Wells wrote:
> I was wondering what the licensing issues for app frameworks (or any
> included classes/libs) for scripting languages are.  I'm creating a rather
> large PHP application for a company, and they'd like to potentially resell
> it to some of their customers.

> Can I safely use GPL'd libraries, classes, etc. (i.e. PearDB) and
> resources that fall under other open source licenses when developing the
> app and let them redistribute these third-party resources with the code I
> develop, or would that be a violation?  If so, could I get around this by
> only distributing inhouse code and requiring any customer to install the
> relevant libraries on their server?

Welcome to Microsoft FUD101.

A GPL license applies only to the program itself.  It does NOT apply to
programs or scripts that invoke it.  For example, if you get the source
to grep and enhance it, your work is GPL'ed.  However, if you write a script
or C program that invokes grep, this does NOT cause your program to be
GPL'ed.

The LGPL (Lesser or Library) GPL applies to objects that are intended to be
linked into executables.  You ARE allowed to link the object in with
proprietary code, such as C code, to build an executable.  This executable
is yours to license, distribute, or not distribute, sell, etc. as you desire.

Similarly, your proprietary script running under Perl, bash, tcsh, or any
interpretive language is yours, regardless of the interpreter being GPL'ed.

It's really quite fair and sensible.

> It would seem to me that since it's a scripted application, I'm
> effectively providing the source as well, so it wouldn't be a problem. 
> However, would I be forced to license the entire application under the
> GPL?

> Also, thinking ahead here a bit, if they wanted to use something like Zend
> Encoder on the project...or at the portion I developed...what sort of
> added gotchas could that bring up?

> Thanks guys!

> John

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com                [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com         [Network&Linux/Unix security consulting]
Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002
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