GPL, Zen Cart and 3rd party

I've never really understood the GNU/GPL license, but I was just reading some topics here and a somewhat interesting thing got my attention.

As Vger said here > Any add-ons written for an Open Source Project are themselves Open Source - but this does not prevent you from asking for a donation towards your updated version of it. and CJPinder said here > Yes they have the right to resell, sell modified versions, distribute for free etc. The other thing to remember is, as Kim said, the GPL is "viral" so any mod that interacts with Zen Cart code can only be distributed under the GPL. You do not have to distribute your work but if you do then it must be GPL. There are a few unscrupulous people who ignore this though.
this made me wonder... Is that true? Any module that works with Zen Cart must be published under GPL or not published at all?

Is that true? Any module that works with Zen Cart must be published under GPL or not published at all?
One needs to determine if it "interacts" with the code or just the data

Example: An application that performs some function on a set of data - say a sales reporting application and it is run fully as a standalone

There are data extractors that can extract and assemble the required data from ZenCart, OSC, and other cart scripts.
These extractors would need to be GPL while the standalone application could be some other license

Standalone is the key here - for if it is integrated into the admin of ZenCart it would then need to be GPL

That's interesting...

Now, for a real example: take a look at Mantic O*e's modules - we all know about them. All of their modules integrate with Zen Cart, especially their URL SEO module or data feeds. Not only that it's not under GPL, but it's Zend encrypted! Isn't that an obvious GPL violation then? Just curious...

Short answer, yes, we feel they are violating the license and one of the reasons we do not support or endorse them.

Hm... Not that I have anything against M.O. (sorry the necessity to edit my post, Kim), but isn't there anything that can be done on that matter? Shouldn't you pursue your legal rights? Shouldn't you (the Team) protect Zen Cart from such license violations as authors and copyright owners? Again, since I'm not familiar with the GPL license, is there anything you CAN do about it? Or you can just sit back and "not support" them, although it means you can't do anything about it? And that brings up two questions. If you can do something, why don't you? And if you can't do anything, what's the purpose of the license?

Too bad there isn't any Smiley scratching his head, I could use one right now... :smile:

You have $$$$$$$$$ to start a lawsuit? (Not to mention the GPL has never been tested in court, as far as I know)

There's an old saying that goes like this:

If you're going to sue on principle,
You'd better have the principal.

A perfect example of GPL is the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server operating system. The Red Hat Corporation started this off, with others, as a GPL project. They now offer RHEL as a paid product, but it's also provided for free as CentOS. I think also that the "payment" side of RHEL is for paid support rather than the product itself, which you can get anyway as CentOS.

There are also companies which offer paid modules for Zen Cart from their sites but not from here as a free download - but those products (when purchased) come with the GPL licence bundled with them. So, legally, anyone who has a copy of those modules can then freely distribute them. I think that the reason this does not happen is out of respect for the work they have put into keeping those modules up to date.

Vger

@ Kim: I knew it, I knew there has to be a catch! So, in other words, you could do something if you had a load of money to cover it and even then you can't be sure of the outcome. It's a really beautiful world we live in - a group of people spends their own time for the benefit of the community (the Team) and then a group of criminals (M.O. & similar) come along and violate licensing terms knowing they'll get away with it because you're no millionaire... Am I being an idealist or does it really suck?

@Vger: I'm not talking about commercial modules. Is RHEL in any way encrypted or do you still have an open source code? I know there are companies selling Zen Cart modules and I totally support that. Take Nu***x for example - they've given away so many free modules, but are also selling some. And that's perfectly fine because their commercial modules are still under GPL. They don't use IonCube or anything alike. Once purchased, you can use it as many times as you wish. I've purchased some of their modules, but don't even think of giving it away to anyone - if you want it, go buy it. That's the only way I can show my appreciation to Nx and their hard and HONEST work. Same goes for Scott's discount modules, for Yellow's various modules etc etc. On the other hand, M.O.'s modules are different - if I want to re-use it for my other site, I'm forced to buy again. Plus, I don't even want to think of the possibility to run any kind of unwanted or malicious processes since the code is obfuscated and only they know how and what it does.

balihr:

Plus, I don't even want to think of the possibility to run any kind of unwanted or malicious processes since the code is obfuscated and only they know how and what it does.

To me, that's the real concern.

Also, that if someone I'm working with has a problem that's caused by their stuff, I have no way of fixing it, since I can't get at the code.

But there you are. If you don't like the way they do business, don't patronize them.

GPL has been recognized on France territory by a judgment (Cour d'appel de Paris AFP/Edu4 - 16 sept 2004). In Germany, it was a judgement against D-Link (6 sept 2006).

Its clear MagneticOne violates the GPL.
You can report that to the foundation here: www.gpl-violations.org

Personnaly, Ive come to the conclusion that OSL was better for everybody in e-commerce software.