[ome-devel] My read of GLPL

[Ilya Goldberg]

On Sep 9, 2004, at 6:15 AM, Chris Allan wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 02:49:02AM +0000, John Kalstrom wrote:
>>
>
> Hi John.
>
>> I intend to create a commercial product that uses OME.  I've been 
>> reading the GNU Library Public License 
>> (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/library.html#SEC3).  I'd heard before 
>> that GLPL doesn't require anything as long as the open software is 
>> unmodified.  I can still sell the overall product and not include 
>> source (especially, non-OME source).
>
>
>> 2) Also, do I need to make the modified OME source available to those 
>> who _haven't_ purchased the overall product?  (I expect that they'll 
>> be specific to the product, not new features, so I doubt anyone would 
>> want them...)
>
> Yes, any changes you make to the OME source code must be made available
> to those who ask for it.


With open source software there is always the danger of endless 
forking.  In practice this happens rarely because if you keep your 
product source-code compatible with our developments, then your product 
benefits from our team of developers, even sometimes to a greater 
extent than the other way around.  So its really to everyone's benefit 
in the long run to keep things compatible.  If your code is compatible, 
and still allows OME to do the things it does in the regular 
distribution, then why not just give it back to the project?  Don't be 
so sure that nobody would be interested in your changes.  I'm 
interested in what you had in mind, for instance, and we can discuss it 
off-list if you wish.  There are more ways to use OME than any of us 
are using it for.

-Ilya


>
>>
>> John Kalstrom
>
> Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any more questions you might have.
>
> Ciao.
>
> -Chris
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