Hi Adrian,
On 2013-08-27 19:00, Adrian Reyer wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 05:09:53PM +0200, Nuno Brito wrote:
> If you need legal advice ask a lawyer.
In regards to legal advice it is not a clear situation and in last
resort is always the judge who decides. Would be great to avoid
misunderstanding in regards to the usage of a GPL component on this
case.
Maybe it helps to provide context on why I'm asking this question.
Before providing advice, a (conscientious) lawyer needs to:
- understand how this specific software component is technically used
inside the software product
- evaluate the weight of the product requirements that are fulfilled by
the GPL component
- estimate the risk of adopting the component based on previous cases
and the context of the product
In the end, a justification is created with these facts and arguments to
argue that a manufacturer of closed-source software can (in good faith)
make use and distribute the component with enough investigation and
documentation effort to demonstrate that the GPL terms are respected
within what is known and permitted by the software component authors.
Even with this mechanism in place, GPL is ambiguous about the definition
of derived works and refers on the FAQ to the concept of "intimacy" or
"arms length" that are not possible to quantify on the same manner for
all software systems.
Those best fit to evaluate this "intimacy" value are the respective the
software component authors, not lawyers, since they are the respective
IPR holders and those that can complain (in legal court) when they
consider that the GPL terms under which their software is released was
not respected for some reason.
This was a long writing just to say that it is important to gather input
from the authors to understand better where is the border (on this case)
between making a compliant use of their own GPL software code (inside
closed source software products) and where the definition of derived
work begins.
> Making cron call bacula within your closed system doesn't violate the
> GPL.
> You may use bacula in closed source systems as well as in open source
> systems. If you distribute bacula within your product, you have to
> fulfill the license requirements. In this case it should be, provide
> the
> bacula source the very same way as well as the bacula license. If you
> need to modify bacula for additional features, you have to publish the
> source for this just as well.
> If your program directly links against bacula code, your program will
> be
> GPL2 as well and you will have to publish the source the same way you
> publish your program.
> A good sample are the various WLAN routers out there. Many of them have
> parts of the used programs as source on CD/as download to fullfill the
> license of these specific parts.
> Apart from that, whatever your program does, consider making it open
> source. There are many working business models that don't require a
> closed source license and if your software even includes a backup
> system
> like bacula it is probably not exactly zero maintaince.
My opinion about releasing the whole product as open source is not my
call since I'm not developing the software. My role is to verify that
the licensing compliance of components like Bacula is properly
respected.
On this context, Bacula is not modified in any shape or form. The
concern is that the component provides a relevant functionality that the
final product needs to fulfill. If the Bacula authors see this
use/distribution as compliant, it helps to clarify if Bacula can be
bundled or not with closed-products.
You mention the case of WLAN routers, unfortunately the GPL compliance
for router equipment was only better respected after several cases like
this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation_v._Cisco_Systems
If Bacula developers are not really following this list so often, will
try to get in direct contact then.
Thanks.
With kind regards,
Nuno Brito
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