[H-GEN] GPL or not??

David Jericho david.jericho at bytecomm.com.au
Wed Feb 12 21:09:26 EST 2003


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On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 11:22:42AM +1000, Tony Melia (DMS) wrote:
> Hi, I am a bit confused about a software program that is supposedly GPL,
> but is not downloadable (commercially) without a license.  The software
> is Dansguardian, which is GPL for both commercial and non-commercial,
> however, the author says you need to buy a license to download it.  Can
> you do this under GPL?  I understood GPL means you can download it,
> resupply it  (all in source form) e.t.c as long as it is not modified,
> or YOU do not charge for it.  I would like to setup Dansguardian for
> some clients, but don't want to breach licenses by just installing it.

Not at all.

The basic gist of the GPL is:

1) You have have unrestricted (within the spirit that is) access and
ability to change and release the source code, with or without your
changes.

2) The vendor is allowed to charge for distribution of the
binaries, and a fee to cover the costs associated with giving you the 
source.

3) Once you have the source, so long as you keep the copyrights and so
on intact, you may put that source up on your website for free
distribution to anybody, and the authors cannot stop you.

> The download page at http://dansguardian.org/?page=copyright2 says 'For
> all commercial[2] use, upon your downloading, DansGuardian 2 is licensed
> under the GPL, however permission to download DansGuardian from this, or
> any mirror[3], website is restricted. '

A legally trained person will probably correct me, but as I read
the page.

1) It costs the author money to make this available to for free.

2) If you're using it for non-commerical (i.e. non-money making
purposes), you may access it for free.

3) If you're going to use it to make money for yourself, the author will 
allow you to download it. If you want to download it again (I'm assuming 
the author means a new version), he would like you to contribute to the 
cost of him making this available to you.

And reading from the final question on the page... quoting

"So, if Debian puts DG on their website, they have to restrict downloads 
to non commercial users, right?

No, not right. Once you have a copy of a GPL app, no one can put any
(non-GPL) restrictions on it - not even me the author. I can ask
people to pay for downloading DG, but once its left this site it is
under the GPL which means it is free (as in freedom) and free (as in
beer - provided they want to give it away for free)."

His concern is his bandwidth. He'd like you to make a contribution to
the project via the concept of a "download license", and in return
he'll give you support to some extent. He also appears to sell support
contracts for his product.

He even says once the file has left his site, you may put it up on
your website, or any website so that other people can download it in
an unrestricted manner.

-- 
David Jericho
Senior Systems Administrator, Bytecomm Pty Ltd


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