OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
Posted Mar 28, 2009 4:18 UTC (Sat) by jordanb (guest, #45668)Parent article: OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
> recommend what he calls "shimming," which he defines as "programing
> practices and architectures that reduce the risk that independently
> created proprietary code might be deemed a derivative work based upon
> some other code that is intended to operate with such proprietary code."
<consultant> You shouldn't try to end-run the GPL.
<client> We've already decided that that's what we want to do, which is why we hired you.
<consultant> Ok here's how you get away with it.
I guess there are worse ways to earn a living.. like managing hedge funds.
Posted Apr 3, 2009 21:40 UTC (Fri)
by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
[Link] (2 responses)
That's not how I interpret "We can't open source this." I think it's more like this:
consultant: the easiest thing to do is open source your product.
client: We can't -- it includes code copyrighted by other people and they won't let us.
consultant: Ok, if you want to publish your product at all, this is what you'll have to do:
Another form of "we can't open source this" would be, "the nature of this product is just that if we open source it we will not be able to recoup our development costs. It's either closed source or no product."
Posted Apr 3, 2009 23:28 UTC (Fri)
by jordanb (guest, #45668)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Apr 4, 2009 0:42 UTC (Sat)
by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
[Link]
Weasel around the copyright. The license does nothing but add to their ability to distribute the code. It's the copyright that stands in their way.
OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
Only if the client says, "We can't open source this," does Norman
recommend what he calls "shimming,"
consultant: You shouldn't try to end-run the GPL.
client: We've already decided that that's what we want to do, which is why we hired you.
consultant: Ok here's how you get away with it.
OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
OSBC: Life at the edge of the GPL
Then the proper response would be to not use the GPLed component, rather than hiring a consultant to help them weasel around the license.