Back to home page

DOS ain't dead

Forum index page

Log in | Register

Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view

licensing again... executables (Announce)

posted by mbbrutman Homepage, Washington, USA, 31.05.2011, 03:33

> > > And assuming the binary-only distribution without all the GPL
> > > appendage will still be provided on your website, you obviously
> > > didn't take away any freedoms with this release.
>
> > ... as though I have restricted ...
>
> http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/ now directs one to
> http://code.google.com/p/mtcp/downloads/detail?name=mTCP_2011-05-30.zip&can=2&q=
> to download the executables. This says the programs are now licensed under
> the GPL in its readme and includes the GPL file. That's alright.
>
> I do not want to cause any offence with this simple question. However you
> did not specifically address this point so I want to ask you: This appears
> to mean you do not provide non-GPL executables any longer. Is that
> intentional?
>
> (Note that this isn't related to source code licensing directly; the
> question in itself just refers to what I'm allowed to do with the
> executables as "user".)


I'm not sure I understand the question. The GPL does not prohibit you from doing anything you were doing last week.

You can't link against the current executables. None of them have a plug-in architecture that might allow you to run your own code within them. And you can't modify the binaries in a meaningful way, so there is no worry about contributing your changes back under GPLv3.

As far as I know and am concerned, noting that the binaries come from an open source code base just tells you where to find the source code and how the source code is distributed. If you choose to redistribute the binaries you may do so, but the license and the other files should go along with the distribution.

Were you thinking that GPL somehow alters the way you can use the binaries?

---
mTCP - TCP/IP apps for vintage DOS machines!
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP

 

Complete thread:

Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view
22778 Postings in 2122 Threads, 402 registered users (0 online)
DOS ain't dead | Admin contact
RSS Feed
powered by my little forum