Could Ensim's WEBppliance be GPL?

Maybe!

[nickp]

I have been mulling this over for a while. After reviewing the licensing of the webppliance I found out that many of the bundled software was licensed under GPL. I reviewed the GPL license and from my interpretation this bundling makes the entire project GPL. Also, it would have to be considered a separate work. But, I cannot imagine that Webppliance could be considered a separate work because if you removed all the GPL components it would have no function.
I emailed Ensim about it, along with a request for the source code per the standard GPL requirement. They responded, "Although we understand your interpretation of the GPL licensing, we do not agree with it."

I would like to hear what people here think before I lodge any formal complaints.

The GPL license can be viewed at [opensource.org...]

Btw, the list of GPL software that Ensim uses is incomplete. I would estimate about 25% of the distribution to be GPL. Also, they did not even acknowledge this anywhere until we went through several heated emails.

Thanks for reading,

Nick Powers

[littleman]

This is a very interesting topic, but it isn't a wmw type of issue. You would be better served by going to gnu.org.

Yet, I am curious, what is GPL in the bundle? I see a lot of BSD licensed stuff, which is legal to bundle with commercial software.

[nickp]

ProFTPD, gettext, phpMyAdmin, MySQL, SquirrelMail, just to name a few..

[littleman]

So, there they are. You may find this page useful:
[gnu.org...]

I'm afraid this is getting uncomfortably close to a legal issue, something WebmasterWorld tries to avoid. So, let's tread lightly here.

[nickp]

Thanks I'll take it to GNU.

Nick Powers