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Possible license violation

 

 

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rjh at sixdemonbag

Dec 11, 2006, 8:19 AM

Post #1 of 4 (418 views)
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Possible license violation

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable

PortableApps is distributing a GnuPG-enabled version of Thunderbird as a
package along with Thunderbird. I do not see an offer for source code
on that page. Perhaps a politely-worded email from a GnuPG developer
might be in order.


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unknown_kev_cat at hotmail

Dec 11, 2006, 4:12 PM

Post #2 of 4 (402 views)
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Re: Possible license violation [In reply to]

"Robert J. Hansen" <rjh[at]sixdemonbag.org> wrote in message
news:457D852F.6080508[at]sixdemonbag.org...
> http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable
>
> PortableApps is distributing a GnuPG-enabled version of Thunderbird as a
> package along with Thunderbird. I do not see an offer for source code
> on that page. Perhaps a politely-worded email from a GnuPG developer
> might be in order.

They do distribute source code, they just don't have a link to it on that
page.
Click the sourceforge icon, then click the download tab, and you will see
the source listed.

Theya re offering both from the same loaction (The sourceforge download
network) so they are complying with the GPL.
I agree that a link on the page you linked to would be nice.



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rjh at sixdemonbag

Dec 11, 2006, 8:42 PM

Post #3 of 4 (404 views)
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Re: Possible license violation [In reply to]

Joe Smith wrote:
> Theya re offering both from the same loaction (The sourceforge download
> network) so they are complying with the GPL.

I'm not certain this argument holds water. Let's say they had a
publicly accessible link to sf.net, but one which had no links going to
it, so it was impossible to navigate to; the only way to get the source
would be to have prior knowledge of this secret link. Would that be
considered GPL-compliant?

To my understanding, the GPL requires that you inform people source is
available. I do not see any such notice on the PortableApps site.

In the grand scheme of things this is a very minor violation, of course.
But still, it's the principle of the thing.



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unknown_kev_cat at hotmail

Dec 12, 2006, 7:46 AM

Post #4 of 4 (401 views)
Permalink
Re: Possible license violation [In reply to]

"Robert J. Hansen" <rjh[at]sixdemonbag.org> wrote in message
news:457E331B.30406[at]sixdemonbag.org...
> Joe Smith wrote:
>> Theya re offering both from the same loaction (The sourceforge download
>> network) so they are complying with the GPL.
>
> I'm not certain this argument holds water. Let's say they had a
> publicly accessible link to sf.net, but one which had no links going to
> it, so it was impossible to navigate to; the only way to get the source
> would be to have prior knowledge of this secret link. Would that be
> considered GPL-compliant?
>
> To my understanding, the GPL requires that you inform people source is
> available. I do not see any such notice on the PortableApps site.
>
> In the grand scheme of things this is a very minor violation, of course.
> But still, it's the principle of the thing.

I know.
On the other hand, it is common for sites to not link to source code on
every page they link to
the binary. That does not seem unreasonable in some cases. Like if they have
a page on the sites that links to the sources of
all packages requiring distribution of source code that can be found on
their site. Is it a problem if that source link listing page is
not linked to directly from ppage offering the download link, but is linked
to on for example, the front page of the site, whcih in turn is linked to by
the page with the binary download link? That seems reasonable enough to me.

In this case, it is important to note that PortableApps are distributing the
files from the same location, and that they do have link to a page
on which there is a link to a page that includes download links to all the
relevent source pakages. That is very similar to the hypothetical
case listed above, except that the instead of a link to the page containing
source links being on the site's main page, it on on the sourceforge Project
page.
Also not that the sourceforge project page links back to the portable app
site as the project's web page.

Also notice that while the thunderbird source is mentioned on the
PortableApps page, it is not linked to on that page. Clearly they feel that
users who are interested in the source code will generally know to check the
sourceforge page for it.



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