Re: Gitbox

Let's look at this at a slighty different way. Let's say someone writes a GUI wrapper for Git, bundles it with Git, and then offers for sale a new proprietary SVC system. They list off all the wonderful features that it has. On the back page of their website is a small 'Licenses' disclosure and the source code to Git comes with the download buried in a subdirectory. None of the users realize the software is using Git.

Is that a violation of the GPL? I would say that it absolutely is. A proprietary software is being built atop the hard labor of the GPL authored software. Hundreds contributed to the Open Source effort, one profits by burying their work in his with the minimal effort.

So, I guess the question is, how is that scenario different than Gitbox? I guess Gitbox doesn't present itself as something else, but code-wise it is no different. Without the Git binary there is no Gitbox.

(Randal L Schwartz writes):

The GPL doesn't mention .a files versus .o versus .so. _Linked_ is not the issue. The issue is one work being _based_ on another, and the word _based_ is the one that appears in the GPL, including the section you quoted.

Section 2 b) of GPL 2 plainly states that any work based on a GPL licensed product must be distributed free of charge and be GPL:

  2 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish,
  that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program
  or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to
  all third parties under the terms of this License.

And the closing explanation of the GPL 2 says the same in even more frank and plain language. These are the last three lines. 'your program' refers to the program being placed under GPL (ie Git), they are written to someone considering releasing software under the GPL:

  This General Public License does not permit incorporating your
  program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine
  library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking
  proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want
  to do, use the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this
  License.

(Joshua Juran writes):

I don't know the answer to this. Maybe they must be distributed as GPL.

(Joshua Juran writes):

I don't know, but I doubt they did. And it is a good point that failure to defend a copyright can often be argued in court as tacit disavowal of that copyright.

Chris