Newbie Port Creator Questions

[Weissmann Markus]

On 03.09.2007, at 00:15, Jonathan Strine wrote:

> Markus,
>
> Thank you very much for the answers, but I am left with one more  
> question.  Does the statement quoted below mean that as long as the  
> patch *and* the base port (that is the main program, dynamips) are  
> both GPL, then everything is OK?  If I understand GPL correctly I  
> cannot redistribute a patched version of of a non-GPL program (even  
> if the patch is GPL) since that would "break" the license?
>
> Am I correct in the above?
>

well, the deal is that macports will only distribute the patch and  
the user will create the patched version on his machine only - so for  
macports everything should be just fine.
The thing with GPLed code is, that it is viral, so everything you  
link against it (or mix with it) will get GPLed code, too. I'm not  
quite sure what if you do not own the original source (e.g. it is BSD  
licensed), but I assume that everyone will be happy as long as the  
viral effect of the GPL is kept and you distribute the source code  
along a binary.

Long story short: MacPorts only makes the patch available and not the  
patched software, so there is no problem for us (as long we don't  
distribute packages). For the rest, a lawyer should be contacted or  
even better: Someone should ask the author of the patch why he/she is  
not playing nice and not using the license of the original code.


-Markus

---
Markus W. Weissmann
http://www.mweissmann.de/