GPL Licensing: Find Your Way Through this Mess
Every so often in open source circles, the issue of the GPL (General Public License) comes up. Most open source projects are released under this license as it allows for the freedom of open source and freely distributed source code, with the adequate protections of law.
Essentially, the GPL says that by recieving a GPL software package, you agree that you have full rights to the software and that you can redistribute the code as an enhanced or modified package so long as all the source code is released, modifications are noted and attributed and the copyright and attribution for the original code is left in place.
WordPress, for instance, is a GPL’d package and so, all access to the source code is released to anyone who wishes to download it. Forking is also common with GPL software. Forking takes the base code from a project and allows someone to start a new project that can run parallel to the original project, or that even goes in a different direction altogether. WPMU is a forked project of WordPress.
A common misunderstanding of GPL is that people can’t get paid for it. This is actually incorrect. The physical act of transferring data is a chargeable action. So, in essence, a software manufacturer can bundle GPL software and charge a “sales fee” that covers the transmission and transfer of the source code. Because GPL requires that the source be distributed with the software, the software manufacturer has the power to decline a “sale” based on a buyers unwillingness to pay.
So Why Write About GPL?
David Chait from the WordPress hackers mailing list pinged us with a link to Chameleon, a Content MAnagement System (CMS) developed by FlipCorp, a company out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Interestingly (and I encourage you reading through the entire thread as it sparked very interesting debate), Chameleon is a fork of WordPress. The entire CMS is based on WordPress and from screenshots, it would appear to really have at it’s core a jazzed up admin screen. The spec sheet and related reading material seems to indicate that WordPress-base user generated plugins were used to bring certain functionality to the CMS.
Now I’ve used WordPress often as a CMS and often bring in the aid of plugins to make it tick the way I want it to. It’s a very flexible platform, very forgiving and has a huge base of plugin authors. However, I wonder how plugin authors would feel about their code being used in a commercial product.
Part of the conversation on the hackers list revolved around, “Are WordPress plugins GPL because they are for WordPress which is GPL?” The answer seems to be, “No, plugin authors can choose to release their code under whatever license they wish to as long as it can co-exist with GPL”.
I pinged FlipCorp about the price of Chameleon. The price given for the software was 25,000 AED (Arab Emirates Dirhams) which is roughly equivalent to $6,800 USD.
So basically, to sum it up, Flip is using free software, pawning it off as their own (no mention of a WordPress base), using other peoples plugins without permission and pawning it off as their own “features”, selling it for $7k and at the end of the day making almost 100% profit.
It’s GPL for ya.
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Written by Aaron Brazell on June 7, 2006
Popularity: 2% [?]
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I’ve now checked it out on the demo and posted this comment on flipblog.
Additionally, when releasing the source code to customers, what are the provisions that are made. Are they forced into an NDA that is complicitly anti-GPL?
I’ve now checked it out on the demo and posted this comment on flipblog.
Additionally, when releasing the source code to customers, what are the provisions that are made. Are they forced into an NDA that is complicitly anti-GPL?
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
You cannot be serious Martin? Very quick turn around to patch all the chameleon’s out there, especiall cause they are supposedly hosted on your servers as you mentioned before. I personally have nothing against you or your company. But I have seen a different Chameleon that was being sold to your clients and in fact I once worked in a company that used it and there was definately no mention of Wordpress anywhere before the sh$t hit the fan.
So instead of hiding behind the lies and modifying things now and making it public, just admit that you lied. In fact I can get a version of this Chameleon software you are talking about and publish it online for the truth to come out.
So how is it? Admitting that it is not yours or waiting to see the real version (that unfortunately was not on your server)?
Managed to login from my toilet seat hope this comment is posted…
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Aaron, your questions with regards to public-facing specs and GPL related issues is answered on the Flip Blogspot
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
Moe Al Akbar,
As far as I am and my technical team are concerned, none of Flip Media’s Chameleon installations are on any of our clients servers but on our own.
If you read all blog entries on Technosailor, Nabble, Digg and Flip Blogspot, you will notice that I am certainly not lying or hiding behind any lies. Flip has released code, has always been facing comments and suggestions of the community and never been hiding for anything that we are doing?! If that would be the case, we would not be having this discussion.
Who is ‘hiding’ at this point of time seems to be you – why don’t you state your name, company and time that Flip supposedly has sold its Chameleon to your ex-employer and I will look up our sales records to confirm your accusations.
Please note that anyone releasing code from Flip Media that was developed in-house or as proprietary custom made plug-ins for clients not falling under GPL regulations, is most likely a violation of our clients business terms.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
I would like to come to Martin Diessner aid here. If you look on their main website they give full credit to Wordpress. Also if you bother to read Wordpress’s licence which comes with every download of their blog software it states:
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
It also states:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee
Therefore the cms software we are talking about is not illegal and flipcorp is not acting against the law and the GPL licence.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
Thanks for the seminar call, William.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
No Problem. I Don’t Like The Fact That People Here Are Stating Unjust Comments About Your Company Without Any Real Evidence. I Myself Would Use Chameleon If I Could Afford It, But That Is Not The Point.
If I Was Incharge Of Flipcorp And Received These Liable Allegations I Would Seek Legal Advice However I Am Not And Martin Seems To Have Handled This Rather Well.
I Have One Tip For All You People Out Their, Before Making Any Comment Involving Legal Ramifications Please Check Your Facts Before Doing So.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
The above comment is from the offical Flipcorp blog which i posted a comment on.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.
This is a whole lotta crap… these FlipCorp or FlipMedia guys have done the sites of some of the biggest clients, as it shows on their site and it all comes down to how they actually got there with this lie-and-run strategy. Moe is right. I part of the IT team for a company you had provided IT and Web Solutions to, and as far as i remember, there was no mention of WP at all!!!…
Its only now that you login and can see it, obviously because the CMS is on your server and can easily be modified.
If you’re gonna steal, at least do so with some dignity Martin.