Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Message-ID: <3CB87E63.1080504@ece.gatech.edu>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 14:52:19 -0400
From: Charles Wilson <cwilson AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:0.9.4) Gecko/20011019 Netscape6/6.2
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: delphi DOT stuff AT vcdhelp DOT com
CC: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com, hvr AT hvrlab DOT org, cdrdao-devel AT lists DOT sourceforge DOT net
Subject: Re: Compliance with the GPL (cygwin)
References: <5 DOT 1 DOT 0 DOT 14 DOT 2 DOT 20020413103032 DOT 0290ecc0 AT pop DOT wanadoo DOT fr>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

delphi.stuff wrote:

> 
> VCDEasy is originally a Graphical Interface helping users to use 
> VCDImager. Then I added cdrdao and some mjpeg tools to ease the VCD 
> creation process. If I include in some VCDEasy distributions these 
> command line tools, it is only to easy the end user setup. Note that 
> VCDEasy is a Win32 native application, made with the free Personal 
> Borland Delphi 6, it does not use cygwin directly.


Fair enough.  If VCDeasy.exe only CALLS the cygwin-linked programs, and 
doesn't actually link to cygwin or another GPLed project/library itself, 
then you're safe -- as far as the source code to VCDEasy *itself* is 
concerned.

 
> I bought some components so I do not have the rights to publish them. So 
> now, based on the fact that I will not publish the source, what should I 
> do ? Stop my VCDEasy freeware development ? Or does advertise for cygwin 
> directly on my application can be enough ? Something else ? Distribute 
> the Win32 gui only and tell the user to download everything else 
> themselves... in this case I think I am ok with all the licenses... but 
> it won't help the end users...  I am not deliberately violating the 
> cygwin GPL license, I only try to help end users, I hope you can 
> understand that. As I said, VCDEasy is a Win32 native application, it 
> does not use cygwin directly.


Of course you not violating the license purposely.  A lot of folks don't 
really understand their obligations under the GPL -- which serve to 
protect and propagate the software freedoms that the GPL grants.  I'm 
just trying to help -- and I'll prove it below.


> Note that the situation is worse as I identified at least two commercial 
> packages that sell my application (including VCDImager and CDRDAO) 
> without any rights... They are making money...


There's nothing wrong with selling GPLed programs that you (or these 
commercial packages) don't own.  (That's how Red Hat Linux and Mandrake 
and SuSe and ... make their money).  So no worries there.  All you (and 
the commercial folks that are distributing VCDEasy) need to do is ensure 
that your users (customers) can obtain the source from you.  (e.g. it's 
no good saying "go get the source from those guys, over there).

So, it seems that all *you* (delphi.stuff) need to do is grab the 
following source codes and put them up on your website somewhere, and 
say "Some libraries and programs invoked by VCDEasy are GPLed, although 
VCDEasy is not itself GPL (and isn't tainted by the GPL since it only 
*executes* these subprograms; it is not linked to them).  You can get 
the source code for those GPLed components here <link to your /src 
directory on your webserver/ftpserver>".

        cygwin-1.1.8
        cygwin-1.3.6
        zlib
        libxml
        jpeg
        mjpeg-tools
        vcdimager
        cdrdao

To help you out, here are some direct links so that you can download the 
src tarballs (all are available here for the next week or so, but they 
will be going away so make sure to physically put them on your own site)

http://www.neuro.gatech.edu/users/cwilson/vcd-src/

Hope that helps.

--Chuck

**************************************************

For VCDImager:

   cygwin-1.3.6-6-src.tar.bz2
taken from the VCDImager website...

   zlib-1.1.3-6-src.tar.gz
an md5 analysis show that 1.1.3-6 is the version of cygz.dll you are using

   libxml2-2.4.12-1-src.tar.bz2
stay tuned.  VCDImager doesn't use version 2.4.13-1 nor 2.4.17-1, which 
are the only versions currently available on the cgywin download site. 
I'm checking with Robert Collins, the cygwin maintainer of that package, 
to see if he has kept 2.4.12-1-src and can send it to me.

   vcdimager-0.7.12.tar.gz
   VCDImager itself: you seem to be using version 0.7.12

********************************************************

For mjpeg-tools

   cygwin-1.3.6-6-src.tar.bz2
taken from the VCDImager website...(same as above)

   jpeg-6b-4-src.tar.gz
an md5 analysis show that 6b-4 is the version of cygjpeg6b.dll you are using

    mjpegtools-1.4.1.tar.gz
    mjpegtools-1.6.0-beta1.tar.gz
    mjpegtools-1.6.0-beta2.tar.gz
mjpegtools itself.  I couldn't determine which version you were using, 
so I grabbed all of the currently distributed src tarballs

**************************************************

For CdrDao

   cygwin-1.1.8-2-src.tar.bz2

   cdrdao-1.1.5.src.tar.gz

**************************************************


--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Bug reporting:         http://cygwin.com/bugs.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/