Licensing

[Kevin Miller]

The key here is that GPL applies and becomes viral when you *distribute*
something.

In the case of lcStackBrowser it is:
- Created in Commercial by person A
- Given a license that is *NOT* GPL by person A
- Distributed (given or sold) under that non-GPL license to person B
- That license prohibits any redistribution by person B

That specific sequence of steps is ok. Person A is a license holder
who assigns a non-GPL license to their work. Person B can use the
software within the Community IDE. The Community IDE¹s license only
becomes viral when person B wants to distribute their own work. Because
(in this case) nothing of person A¹s stack is included in the work of
person B that's ok.

You could not create something that included any objects or code from
person A¹s stack and allow person B to redistribute it from Community.
That would cause the GPL to kick in. So a plugin like lcStackBrowser is ok
because that does not occur (at least I assume it does not, I haven¹t
actually checked). A library or widget created by the same mechanism that
is included in person B¹s stack would not be OK. It would have to be GPL
because it (or part of it) is included during redistribution by person B.

I hope this clarifies things!

Kind regards,

Kevin

Kevin Miller ~ kevin at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps




On 07/01/2015 01:58, "Richard Gaskin" <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:

>Peter Haworth wrote:
> > Just to clarify and make sure I'm not about to break an licensing
> > rules, my proposed license for lcStackBrowser is not GPL compatible
> > since it will specifically prohibit a licensed user from giving its
> > code to anyone else or using its code in any of their products
> > without my consent, except in the form of a license transfer approved
> > by me.  They can of course change, add to, or delete the code for
> > their own personal use.
> >
> > However, the stack will be running in Livecode Community Edition
> > which is GPL licensed so hopefully  an lcStackbrowser user would not
> > be in breach of Livecode's Community Edition license. Always
> > remembering that lcStackBrowser is strictly a development utility
> > and has no part to play in the execution of a stack or a standalone.
>
>Any plugins made with the Commercial Edition and used within the
>Commercial Edition IDE can have any license you like so long as it
>doesn't conflict with the terms of the Commercial Edition EULA, which is
>pretty liberal.
>
>I can't speak for Kevin so hopefully he'll chime in here with any
>clarifications that may be needed, but my understanding of RunRev's
>position on the Community Edition is consistent with the GPL
>interpretation used by Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, and others, in which
>all code running in the same engine is governed by the license for that
>engine.
>
>Because LC is dual-license our situation is less clear than with
>GPL-only systems like Wordpress, so being neither a lawyer nor Kevin I
>would venture only these assumptions and rely on Kevin to clarify:
>
>If a plugin is made with the Commercial Edition, it can be run within
>the Community Edition under GPL or any GPL-compatible license - the FSF
>has a list of GPL-compatible licenses here:
><https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses>
>
>If a plugin is created with the Community Edition, it must use the same
>license the Community Edition uses, GPL v3.
>
>This interpretation seems consistent with the LC FAQ:
>
>     Can I use closed source libraries, components or embed LiveCode
>     in a closed source application?
>
>     You cannot redistribute software that includes closed source
>     libraries with the open source version of LiveCode. Anything
>     that is part of your application must be made available under
>     the same GPL license.
><http://livecode.com/support/ask-a-question/>
>
>That said, the wording there is a bit unclear (did they mean to write
>"...in an open source application"?), and it addresses a standalone
>rather than the IDE itself.
>
>Still, I tend toward a conservative approach for my own work, so
>anything I distribute for use in the Commercial Edition IDE as at least
>GPL-compatible if not GPL v3 specifically.
>
>-- 
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Fourth World Systems
>  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
>  ____________________________________________________________________
>  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com
>
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