[jdev] JabberPalm License

[Kevin Smith]

On 31 Aug 2005, at 10:49, BreezeChan wrote:
>>>> I'm working on a jabber client for palm ,that base on some  
>>>> JabberPalm
>>>> project's libaries. As i know,JabberPalm is publish under GPL &  
>>>> Jabber
>>>> Open source License. It's should be legal If i publish my new
>>>> Jabberclient as shareware?
>>>
>>> You may sell GPL-based software, but you must sell it with the  
>>> source code.
>>
>> ... and you must not forbid giving that source code away (on GPL  
>> basis).
>  is that mean someone can build a executable file from my sources ?
> or if i just provide part of my sources that related to jabberpalm  
> library only ?

That means you must give away all of your source under the GPL to  
anyone you give the binaries to. If the Jabberpalm code you're using  
is GPLd, your client is a derivative work of Jabberpalm and as such  
must also be GPLd.

This does not prohibit you from charging for your binaries, it does  
mean that anyone who has your binaries is entitled to the source, and  
is then free to do almost (read the GPL for details) anything they  
want with it, including redistributing it.

There is absolutely nothing to prevent you distributing it with a  
shareware notice asking people to pay you for it though, although  
obviously someone with the source could remove such a notice and  
redistribute.

/K

--
Kevin Smith
Psi Jabber client maintainer (http://psi.affinix.com/)
Taekwon-do club captain (outgoing), University of Exeter
Postgraduate Research Student, Computer Science, University Of Exeter