Illegal?

Worker Joined: Sep 01, 2004 Posts: 105

Hey, I've seen a few sites with the PHP-Nuke 7.5 download (including this one Smile

). I installed it too and it's nice...but isn't it illegal to distribute it to the public for free?

G-Rard

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Absolutely not. It's GPL and anyone can distribute it. GPL allows you to charge for the delivery, if you want, but not the code itself Smile

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:26 pm

ooooooo I get it now. So as long as someone buys PHP-Nuke can give it out for free?

Thanks for the extremely fast reply Smile

,
Gerard

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:32 pm

No. You do not HAVE to buy it. phpnuke is distributed under the GPL license. As such, it has to be FREE ( kaching!

$) code. However, GPL allows you to charge for the delivery, but it does not prohibit the giving away of the code to anyone, by anyone.

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:33 pm

100% clear now, Raven! You da man! Even if you are republican Smile

lol jk

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:37 pm

Obviously, that's what makes me 'da man' ROTFL

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:17 pm

Which brings to mind the issue with phpnuke.org charging for latest release even after 30 days.

I thought GPL stated that for days 1-30 one can charge for code, but after that it needs to be free (distribution can be of course added).

I'm still on 7.2 and when I see 7.5 go +30 days, I'm definitely gonna get fired up when I see I need to join some club...which is just a front for charging for the code.

Must be a democratic ploy! Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:21 pm

GPL has no such license. GPL does not allow for charging for the code. You can charge for the delivery and you can charge as long as you want whether you own the code or not. 7.5 will not be free from his site until he releases his next release.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:41 pm

If GNU GPL does not allow for charging for the code, then why is PHPNuke 7.5 $10?

This is NOT for the distribution fee, it's for the code itself.

It seems slightly incompatible to have both:

Quote:

This version is not available to the public for free.

AND

© 2004 by PHPNuke.org. All Rights Reserved.
Website engine's code is © copyright by PHP-Nuke.

Quote:

PHP-Nuke is a free software released under the GNU/GPL

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying for a clear understanding.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 1:12 pm

No it is not. He is charging for access to the code, i.e., delivery fees which GPL allows. That's why it is NOT illegal for me or anyone else to distribute it.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:17 pm

Perhaps the issue then for him (and Raven, my thoughts are nothing on you or your site) is that it is definitely not clear to me that when he states it's $10, that it's for the distribution fee.

I would just like to see the language cleared up to indicate that the $10 is soley for the distribution of the software; the software itself is free.

This is what I read, and why it sounds like the software is $10 (whereas you're saying it's the distribution of the software):

Quote:

This version is not available to the public for free.

and

Quote:

You can get access to it and download after placing your order

and

Quote:

You can get PHP-Nuke 7.5 for only US$10

and

Quote:

By purchasing this latest version

And just to clear this up, I'm not spending the $10 because I think it's wrong or it's a lot of money....I'm stuck on 7.2 and I did a ton of customizations and added a lot of modules and my understanding is it would be an awful amount of work.

I'm here to also say THANK YOU to Raven for Sentinel 2.0.2 and I'll be making a donation when Paypal is back and working (it might be by now, but twice this week it wouldn't do a thing).

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:39 pm

Maybe this will help. It's allowed for the access to the code. And of course, you can always contact FB and request a clarification. ROTFL

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:46 pm

That does help indeed.

And I'm told it would be quite a waste to contact FB... but that's just the folks who have gone to PostNuke and blame him for that.