GPL question.

Topic:	GPL question.
ripthesystem Softmore Posts: 96 Posted: 2.Oct 2003 - 18:59	Not sure what forum this should go in but as it has to do with 3rd party modules, I'll post it here. I've seen this brought up on a number of occasions and it always turns into an argument with no really clear answer so that is what I'm trying to get here. PostNuke is Open source under GPL. So here is the situation.. If there is a PHP program that is also under GPL and someone ports it to PostNuke is that still under GPL? What I mean is- I've seen people charging for Modules etc, which is fine, but if someone purchases a module can they distribute that module they just bought for free? Thanks.
markwest Moderator Posts: 7720 Posted: 2.Oct 2003 - 19:05	I start by saying that i'm not a lawyer. However the way I see things is that this would depend on how the module itself is licenced. PN has a freely available published interface (pnAPI) this allows people to access PN's internals in a standard way. The licence of the module is then up to the developer. If the module is licenced as GPL then yes you re-distribute it freely even. If the module is licenced in a commercial fashion then you may not distribute it unless the terms of the specific licence allow. This allows both commerical and GPL to be developed as the author decides. But again i'm no lawyer..... -Mark
larsneo Software Foundation Posts: 4482 Posted: 2.Oct 2003 - 22:25	one should keep in mind that GPL doesn't mean that software must be free in terms of free beer - the basic idea behind opensource is free software in terms of free speech. please check Selling Free Software disclaimer: i'm not a lawyer and it's just my personal understanding from the GPL... -- regards from germany ..::[Zikula Application Framework]::.. ..::[SEO-Blog]::.. ..::[CMS Sicherheit]::..