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Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? |
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 pcnuke writes "Topic: Can developers 3rd party developers legally sell addons created for use with the Php-Nuke portal system, without the permission of the Php-Nuke developer, according to law.
This article is published to gain legal information from individuals in the greater Nuke Community and for people in the community to become aware of what these rules in tale. There is currently to much confusion in the community as to what the rules are legally. The purpose of this article is not to create heated debates on the issue or any given point. If you have legal knowledge of any points below, please provide them in your comments. Also explain your points in an understandable manner, so all individuals know what you are saying. Don't just say, here read this article, it says it all. Tell the community where and why.
We are not talking about copyright laws here, or personal views on the issue, just the basic binding laws. Is every developer legally bound by the same law & rules by which the PHP-Nuke developer has chosen or not (GNU General Public License)? If so can 3rd party developers then say we do not use the GNU rules, the GNU rules do not apply to our addon, we use other rules?
PHP-Nuke is free software, released under GNU GPL Licence version 2.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are a few major points that need to be addressed for the Nuke Community:
1. Since Php-Nuke was created by a single owner, can developers sell made items for use with it. Because if it were not for the creation of the Php-Nuke portal system, the 3rd party developers would have nothing to use their items with. Are they not bound then by the same legal statutes as PHP-Nuke? and since we know that Php-Nuke! is bound to the GPL/GNU laws, don't all addons have to abide by these same statutes. Meaning all addons produced for use with Php-Nuke aree bound to the GPL/GNU statues and no other source unless the portal developers changes the source.
This is what the PHP-Nuke copyright headers include:
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This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License.
2. If the above is true, then can 3rd party developers bind an addon by other laws outside of the GPL. (I am not talking about copyright issues here. Copyright ownership basically means that know one else has the right to sell or distribute someone else's work without permission from the owner. But if the developer clearly stated that his work has been given away for freely, and anyone can use it, alter it, and distribute it, from there forth that version cannot be changed after its release and will always be bound by those legal statutes. Yes future versions may be changed, but not past versions. How can a person go back in time and do that, you can't. But know one can ever sell any copyrighted item without permission from its owner.)
3. What is the binding law on all these above issues (not copyright)?
The comment following is only a Point of View and have not been determined if any of it is legally true.
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Legally is seems like if a 3rd party developer created a resource to be used within Php-Nuke, and gave that resource away free and willing to the Nuke Community, and also included in those resources in the file copyright headers this information:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
Then from that point on that version of their addon would always be free to the Nuke Community to use as stated in the GPL. But later if the 3rd party developer decided to sell that item, then all information as shown above, would have to be pulled from the addon, the addon would also have to be repackaged to including a new version number. The 3rd party develops would also have to announce this to the Nuke Community in some form of news release, stating these facts, so the community would be made aware of these changes & that the 3rd party developer has taken a new path with their addon. But all previous versions that were released to the community in a free and willing way by the developer will still remain that way to the community. The new rules would only apply to any future releases, not past releases.
If you reply or comment to this article, please be professional about it and stay on the points of issue, answering each or any question you have knowledge of, by legally binding statutes, not guesses.
PCN System
http://www.max.pcnuke.com
The Power of the Nuke - Without the Radiation!"
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Posted on Sunday, February 05 @ 17:18:18 CET by VinDSL |
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man you rock - many thanks for the great development (Score: 1)
by nuke_reporter on Sunday, February 05 @ 17:25:03 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) | g day Rhino gday dear pc-nuketeam
to be honest - i have nothing to say bout your selling-anouncemtent. For me, Open Source beats everything that is trying to compete. We have many many great GPLized modules. The best of them are in a ever evolving mode. They are developed in a sustainable way. That is thrilling and makes many many Nukers happy and satisfied.
Rhino, i want to thank you for your great efforts for phpnuke. you guys rock, i love your great work
- the work on the amazon-module
- the work on the Mreview-module (btw. can you take care that the pakistan-forum discussions are put a bit more central. This would help alot!
Btw. Edgardo on Preciogasolina does not really work on the 2.8 of the amazon-mod. Could u take care of some kind of sustainable development of the module for PHPNuke. That would help alot. The worldwide NukeCommunity would appreciate alot
Rhino - plz take a look at the great efforts that are made for the
1. Amazon-module
2. the MReview-module.
Rhino - do you think that you can host the stuff over at your site?! That would be great!
thx for all you do and did!
regards
nukeReporter
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by pcnuke on Monday, February 06 @ 12:45:49 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) | Raven has turn this article into a forum Discussion topic, if you would like to see what people are saying, go here:
http://ravenphpscripts.com/postx8393-0-0.html
pcn |
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by Prophet on Monday, February 06 @ 19:08:02 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) http://jasonlau.biz | According to the GNU/GPL license, If application1 requires application2 in order to function, and application2 is released under a GNU/GPL license, then application1 must also be released under the same said license.
Application1 can be distributed for monetary gain, but it is still covered by the same license. So, the purchaser can in turn modify and distribute (including for monetary gain) application1, provided the license remains intact.
Food for thought:
What if the author of application2 (e.g. PHP-Nuke) sells the right to remove the license as is done on phpnuke.org?
What happens to the rights to application1 if the GNU/GPL license has been removed from application2?
Let's say for example, I purchased the rights to remove the license from PHP-Nuke then I create a new module for it. Is said module bound by the GNU/GPL license?
Additional points to ponder:
GNU/GPL covers copyright, but does not cover certain other aspects such as Trademark.
Actually, GNU/GPL may conflict with international Trademark laws.
If a GNU/GPL application carries a restricted trademark, the user is bound to the license and laws which protect the trademark and those restrictions supersede the GNU/GPL license. |
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by chris-au on Tuesday, February 07 @ 22:30:50 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) http://sengers-au.com | "Since Php-Nuke was created by a single owner"
I was under the impression of the following:
A long time ago, I read somewhere that phpNuke was derived from another, previously written CMS.
In the early days, phpNuke was maintained and expanded by a group of people, not FB on his own.
They had an argument or whatever and some of those started PostNuke.
I forgot about the name from what CMS phpNuke originally was derived from.
But I am sure that the details are still somewhere recorded on the 'web'
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by chris-au on Tuesday, February 07 @ 22:58:47 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) http://sengers-au.com | My reading of this stuff?
If one makes an add-on, one can charge if one desires to do so.
If identifiable sections of that work are NOT derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it
The above is part of the GNU/GPL license.
If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
An add-on is not derived from the Program and are not part of the whole (in this case phpNuke). They are add-ons and seperate works.
If a developer wishes to make add-ons and does NOT want it to be BNG/GPL he can do so, that is what I read.
Other CMS's agree with that interpretation of the opensource license.
I don't know, I am not a lawyer.
But, I think what FB is doing to charge $10 for 'early' releases is in breach of the license.
It is GNU/GPL or it is not. |
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by rwxrwxrwx on Tuesday, February 07 @ 23:23:10 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.ratboyz.com/ | You're mixing up laws, licenses, and copyrights. The three are different.
GPL is a license not a law or statute. Think of it as a contract between the creater and the user.
Those who distribute software under GPL are granting everyone advance permission to copy, modify, distribute, etc. their work. You are free to create and sell your own add-ons without asking anyone. If the add-on can function totally on its own, you are free to use whatever license you want. If it requires Php-Nuke to operate, you must use GPL or a GPL-compatible license. There are quite a number to choose from: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.php . Although you are free to charge money, you cannot prevent a purchaser from giving your work away to others either for free or a fee.
The only time you need to request permission is when you want to use a license not compatible with GPL. Php-Nuke is the work of many people not just FB. Instead of asking all of them, you might be able to get away with requesting permission from the original author whose software was used to create Php-Nuke. Technically, he owns the copyright on any derived works. Before going this route, I suggest you ask the GNU or an IP attorney directly for their opinion. |
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Re: Can developers legally sell addons created for use with Php-Nuke? (Score: 1)
by chris-au on Wednesday, February 08 @ 00:43:34 CET
(User Info | Send a Message) http://sengers-au.com | Where phpNuke came from:
http://atthat.com/ |
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