RE: [PEAR-DEV] PEAR and GPL (Was: [PEAR-DEV] Net_Geo_IP)

You can use GPL code in a closed source application as long as you don't re-distribute that applications. For instance, if I created a custom shopping cart for my company using GPL software and did not plan on selling or redistributing it I would be in no legal danger. For PEAR, though, since I most likely would be trying to sell a cool app built with an open source library I would not be able to use the GPL'd library code without forcing myself to open up my entire application. This should be included in the coding standards somewhere under acceptable licenses (ie. PHP and LGPL are ok, but straight up GPL is not ok). --Joe -- Joe Stump http://www.joestump.net "How would this sentence be different if pi equaled 3?" -----Original Message----- From: Stefan Neufeind [mailto:stefan@neufeind.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 4:48 AM To: pear-dev@lists.php.net Cc: Christian Stocker Subject: Re: [PEAR-DEV] PEAR and GPL (Was: [PEAR-DEV] Net_Geo_IP) On 17 Sep 2003 at 10:44, Christian Stocker wrote: > On 9/17/03 10:37 AM, Stig Bakken wrote: > > > On Wed, 17 Sep 2003, Christian Stocker wrote: > > > > > >>Hi > >> > >>Just because noone else mentioned it until now ;) > >> > >> > >>>It is documented and because it's basically a straight port its is > >>>released under the GPL, same as the perl module. > >> > >>GPL is a problem for PEAR. > > > > > > Strictly speaking GPL is a problem only for extensions, not PHP > > code. > > Did you ever got an answer from RMS concerning this issue? > > AFAIK, I can't use GPL packages in non-gpl scripts, right? But if > you're refering to distributing it with the PEAR infrastructure, > you're (IMHO) right, that it isn't a legal issue. Hmm, so you say we need something like the LGPL which allows you to use the class / component / ... even in non-gpl-software? Okay, I see the problem with GPL. So distribution via pear would be okay, but you aren't allowed to use it in anything non-gpl. Hmm - and this would also lead to problems with possible package-interdependencies etc. A real problem, yes. So as Pierre outlined maybe we shouldn't use GPL- code in PEAR. Stefan -- PEAR Development Mailing List (http://pear.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php