Notice that I am not changing the GPL license. Summary: Basically the source code is GPL, not BSD. The official binaries (from me) are freeware.
Explanation: I just specify that your applications are not considered derivative work unless 1) you cut and paste web2py code in your applications, 2) you modify the source of one of the web2py files. As long as you follow 1 and 2 you can distribute your apps (not web2py) under any license you wish. I also added the exception. The exception covers the official web2py binaries (not the source code) and says they can be distributed with your application as long as you say you are doing so (basically freeware). This gives you one more right but does not conflict with the GPL (which covers the source instead). You still do not have the rights to distribute binaries of derivative code which is the critical point of the GPL. The point here is to make it as easy as possible for you to distribute web2py and web2py applications but if you make any modification to web2py (make it better) you make to make source code of the changes available to everybody else. You cannot make a closed source "improved" version of web2py. This protects users (developers of applications) from contributors (developers of web2py) since the latter cannot stop the open source development and turn web2py into a closed source commercial product, which BSD would instead allow. If they want to improve web2py they must release the improvement under GPL. Also notice that I own the trademark on web2py and paid a lot of money for it. This means only the "official" version can be called "web2py". I am going to enforce this in order to prevent confusion between users. The strength of web2py is that there is one of it and this is necessary to guarantee portability and backward compatibility of code. On Sep 24, 10:04 am, Anand Vaidya <anandvaidya...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sep 24, 10:47 pm, DenesL <denes1...@yahoo.ca> wrote: > > > IMHO that's OK, per the latest manual, section 1.8: > > > The web2py license also includes a commercial exception: > > > You may distribute an application you developed with web2py together > > with an unmodified official binary distribution of web2py, as > > downloaded from the official website[1], as long as you make it clear > > in the license of your application which files belong to the > > application and which files belong to web2py. > > I was wondering whether such exceptions are acceptable to the FSF > "linking rules". I know that Massimo owns the rights to the code and > the intention here is to grant generous "Do as you wish" BSD type > terms to users. > > Will these exclusions be acceptable, say in court or to FSF? GPL > itself has been proven in courts many times, though.... > > PS: A true incident: > A while ago, one of our competitors wrote a web front-end to some > piece of software (which I will not name) and licensed it GPL2.0, but > added a clause that , (IT) service providers were not eligible to use > the said software. I was certain it was in violation of GPL (no > discrimination clause) and will not be acceptable to FSF (maybe courts > too?) and had thought of complaining to FSF but the said competitor > went out of business ;-) > > Regards > Anand > > > > Oh, and how do I create the Windows "exe" file or Mac app that runs web2py > > > with my default application and initialized database installed? > > > Can't help you there mate, I have not done that. > > > DenesL --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "web2py-users" group. To post to this group, send email to web2py@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to web2py+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/web2py?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
