bbs100 by Walter de Jong <walter@heiho.net> (C) 2004

This document explains some things about the GNU General Public License.

bbs100 COMES WITH NO WARRANTY. bbs100 IS FREE SOFTWARE.
bbs100 is distributed under terms described in the GNU General Public License.

The GNU General Public License (commonly known as the GPL) is a contract.
By accepting the software (the bbs100 package), you are implicitly accepting
the contract. So, even though you didn't sign any papers, you have agreed with
the contract by accepting the software. This is true because nothing else
grants you the right to use, copy, distribute, modify, or sell the software.

The GPL is a software license that allows you to, albeit under certain terms,
to use, copy, distribute, sell, and/or modify the source code of the package.
This does not mean however, that the author of the code has given up his
copyright. The copyright to the package remains with the author of the
package, but he allows you to use, copy, distribute, modify, and even sell the
software, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions described
in the GPL.

Many people are under the impression that the GPL is very free, but I think
it is quite restrictive. If you decide to use, copy, distribute, modify, or sell
bbs100, please be sure you understand every aspect of the GPL and that
you comply with the terms and conditions described in the GPL.
It is important that you realize this, because if you are breaking the
contract the author (as legal copyright holder) has legal permission to
take action to enforce the contract. (In other words, you may be sued).

You can read more about the GPL at http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/


--
I can understand if the GPL confuses you at first. If it does, carefully
re-read every portion of it a couple of times. I've had some interpretation
problems myself. The people at the FSF were very helpful.

<MAIL QUOTE>
Walter de Jong wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a question about the interpretation of the GPL.
> 
> Point 2b states the following:
> 
> "You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or
> in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be
> licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of
> this License."
>
> I am the author of a program which is a server. People can connect to it
> and use it. (Of course, the program is licensed under GPL).  A friend of
> mine runs a modified version of this program, and claims that his
> modifications are not free and that the GPL does not apply to his
> modifications.

The GPL certainly applies to his modifications, regardless.  However, that
is a separate issue from whether or not the GPL requires him to distribute
source in a particular case.

If your friend uses his software only on his server, and does not distribute
the binaries to anyone else, he has not legally distributed the software.
If the software is not distributed to anyone, he is not required to provide
source to anyone.

This is true even if he supplies a public service on a network that uses GPL
code on his machine.

We are looking at ways to solve this problem in the GPL version 3, but it is
a very hard problem to solve, given existing copyright law.



> What does the word "publish" exactly mean in this context?
> Is he obliged to make the source code for his modifications publicly
> available for download?

-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn, Aide to Richard Stallman
Free Software Foundation     |  Phone: +1-617-542-5942
59 Temple Place, Suite 330   |  Fax:   +1-617-542-2652
Boston, MA 02111-1307  USA   |  Web:   http://www.gnu.org
</MAIL QUOTE>

