[AuckLUG] GPL 3 - The Real Deal

[Dominic Scheirlinck]

On 6/1/07, Martin Baehr <mbaehr at email.archlab.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 02:01:23PM +1200, Guy K. Kloss wrote:
> > McObject Open Source Databases are available under a dual license . Under the
> > GPL, you may download and evaluate the source code free of charge and you may
> > use McObject Open Source Databases free of charge in a non-commercial
> > application (one that you do not charge money for or that is not used
> > internally by your business,
>
> no need to read any further. this is already a missunderstanding of the
> GPL. if they intend to uphold this then the code is NOT GPL licensed.

Actually, read that paragraph very carefully. They don't put any
"restrictions" on the GPL licensed code. They don't say you can't use
the GPL licensed code for commercial applications. Instead, they just
say that you _may_, not must, use it in non-commercial ones. Further
down they say that if you wish to use the code in a commercial
application then you _can_ use their commercial license, again not
that you must.

So, when that paragraph says "under the GPL you may..." what follows
is not an exhaustive list of what you can do with the code (it doesn't
say, for instance, "you may only").