Powered by ....

Here in the Neterlands I regularly see carts that have the "Powered by Zen Cart" tekst replaced by "Powered by Someone else" :( Is that allowed? I vaguely remember I read somewhere that one is allowed to remove it, but not to change it like that.

(I lost it during my edits on my own site, but will put it back later)

The line is not required by law, but the team requires it in order to be showcased on the Zen-Cart site.

So no legal reprocussions, but it's definitely bad form.

Well to say it is "Powered by ____" anyone else but Zencart is just plain wrong. If you don't want to link to zencart, than take out the entire line and than just put a copyright notice. You have to stop and think, what does the "powered by" mean? Zencart is the engine. To put powered by anything else doesn't make sense and is not true.

paulm:

Here in the Neterlands I regularly see carts that have the "Powered by Zen Cart" tekst replaced by "Powered by Someone else" :( Is that allowed? I vaguely remember I read somewhere that one is allowed to remove it, but not to change it like that.

(I lost it during my edits on my own site, but will put it back later)

To put powered by anything else doesn't make sense and is not true.That would depend on the amount of modifications made of course.

But anyway, I was just wondering what I could/should say, or not say, whenever I encounter it. And I think it's all clear now.

Thnx :-)

I'm sorry but I disagree. Depending on the number of modifications you make you can change the COPYRIGHT. But 'Powered By' refers to the engine of the cart. To put, 'Powered by ME' or whatever you want, would simply not be true unless you created the cart (not the template, graphics, images, css etc. but the actual underlying functionality of the cart).

Basically, I am arguing semantics here. Maybe their is a language barrier and non-english speakers don't understand the phrase 'Powered By . . . '.

paulm:

That would depend on the amount of modifications made of course.

But anyway, I was just wondering what I could/should say, or not say, whenever I encounter it. And I think it's all clear now.

Thnx :-)

Of course it depends, even early versions of Zen Cart said "Powered By Zen Cart", or do you think that was not correct either? But I do not expect these carts to be modified to that extend, actually I think they are at least about 98% standard Zen Cart, so that is not the issue here :-)

paulm:

Of course it depends, even early versions of Zen Cart said "Powered By Zen Cart", or do you think that was not correct either?

I don't understand. I am arguing that if ANYONE puts 'Powered By ____' it should say Powered by Zencart. If you don't want to put zencart, leave off the powered by statement.

Here is my point, look at either of my sites below. Do either of them scream 'Zencart'? No. But they still are probably 95% or more zencart because the underlying structure is zencart, the dressing is mine. (Of course I don't have Powered by Zencart, but I don't have Powered by anything else either).

Sorry, I probably have not been clear. I meant in the hypothetical case that someone would create a fork that differs a lot from the original. And that probably would involve a lot more than major code changes, like a separate support board etc.

Anyway, adding some contribs and editting the layout, would not be enough for it to be called a fork (I think, I am not an expert on forks ;-) ), and thus it indeed should be "Powered by Zen Cart" if it is mentioned at all.

I just thought I read somewhere replacing the powered by text would be a violation of the licence, but now I am quite sure I remebered wrong. That's all.

:D We agree then.

BlindSide:

The line is not required by law, but the team requires it in order to be showcased on the Zen-Cart site.

So no legal reprocussions, but it's definitely bad form.

Where is the Showcase sites listed?

BlessIsaacola:

Where is the Showcase sites listed?

It's not yet been re-instated after the forum switch, but I believe it is wip.

Okay I've been googling for half an hour for clear answer and I'm still bit lost with the gpl license, binaries and copyrights.

I found this line saying:

"GNU/GPL software as of Version 2 does not limit the removal of links, code modifications, etcetera. It is the copyright that is not to be deleted."

but still someone please explain what are the legal responsibilities aka what must stay in place and where considering the gpl license if distributed

I was asked to do a website for a small company and especially for their product. For example if I'd like to use zen cart source files (with major modifications since its only for one product range). What are my legal responsibility in that case. The copyright must stay in the footer? it cannot be copyright 2007 company X? What binary files? The things in the beginning of php files must stay in place? what if they're 90% rewritten? umm please explain this enough clear for me.

thank you a lot as always

The copyright that is visible on the catalog side covers the graphics and the "look" of the site. That copyright should be the company that owns the site as long long as they own the design and the contents of the site.

The copyright notice that is visible in the Admin needs to be left, though you as a programmer can add your copyright to it if you own the rights to any modifications.

If you are doing this work as an independent contractor, more than likely you will fall under the "work for hire" rules and you would not own any of the custom code you write unless you have it spelled out in a written contract.

The copyright headers in the php files must be left in tact. The owner of any additional or changed code may add their copyright along with the original copyrights. It doesn't matter if you change one word or everything in an existing file. Any completely new files may be copyrighted by the owner, but if any exisiting functions or classes etc are used in the new file then the standard Zen Cart copyrights would need to be added.

Clear as mud? :smile:

obaa-san Kim, thank you a lot!

I hope some zen cart project in future pays up to me more than my office monthly rent and coffee so I can contribute some cash back to you. Thanks for your continuing effort as always!

poosk:

obaa-san Kim, thank you a lot!

I hope some zen cart project in future pays up to me more than my office monthly rent and coffee so I can contribute some cash back to you. Thanks for your continuing effort as always!

Pay the rent, but skip one cup of coffee per day and send the savings to ZenCart. Not only will you be slightly healthier, you will be morally fitter!! :laugh: (Mind you, if you're anything like me, you probably need as much caffeine as you can get!)

Seriously though, even if you could only manage $5 or $10 per MONTH, that all helps the cause. And if everybody did that, the Dev Team could work from their laptops in the Caribbean. :laugh: (Just wish I was clever enough to be on the Dev Team)

This is a good topic but for my 2Cents on the matter I'd strongly avoid posting a powered by in the site as a site wide link.

The simple fact that zen cart and others may link back to you could end up being categorized as a reciprocal link and google, msn, and yahoo frown on this heavily.

The best method to employ is a simple link that goes internal first then out to zen cart. You could simply put a footer link to a site credits page in your zencart site and then a brief summary about the site, its technology and its usage of ZenCart would serve both Zen Cart and you much better. You get valuable content and Zen Cart gets a good one way link with some content.

I have done this with WordPress blogs for the past two years of my coding them for the designer I work with and its worked like a charm.

Mark P.

Hey Mark,

Where are you getting that these links are BAD,
by leaving the powered by
and then of course putting site in showcase

you get a relative link from a well indexed site ( last I checked being linked to from a well indexed and populare relative link is a very god thing )

Merlin is right the better indexed page you have linked to the better off you are, and why not link it anyway if your using the software, it helps promote at the same time.

If you do not want to give rank to the site edit the code to do a no follow simple as it gets.

I can also vouch for what Merlin says. The showcase listing isn't just to show off; it builds search engine cred for you AND for Zen Cart.

What qwest4life is saying (and it is true) is that if you were to ask for help in the forums and provided a link to your site - Google, MSN etc would index the link and because you have a site-wide link BACK to zencart it just looks like you have done a link exchange... This devalues your position in SERPS (Search Engine Ranking Position).

The best action therefore is to either do as qwest4life suggested and avoid the site-wide link or even better the zencart team could (and I know they are very busy!) employ a well known vbulletin anti-spam measure and have all forum links redirect with a no-follow tag.

Crazy I know - but it's TRUE!