I recieved a link today that shows that the FSF has stated that FB is violating the GNU/GPL and that he is mis reading it. Please goto PHP-Nuke DE. Please bear in mind part of the article is in german but the email from the FSF is in english. There are a couple more links, also from the German Nuke Community, that I felt that I should list here. PHP-Nuke-Community DE and Nuke_Creative DE. I want to thank everyone that has spoken their mind on these issues. It does my heart great good to see the outpouring by OUR community. In case you missed the replies to the article at PHP-Nuke you may see them Here.

Admin: I am reproducing the meat of the article here so that you don't have to follow the main link if you are too tired :lol:

On Fri, 2004-10-22 at 05:22, Jens via RT wrote:
> Hello,
>I am a little bit confused: There exists a GPL Software named PHP-Nuke, based on the GPL Software "Thatware". This GPL Software includes a copyright disclaimer, which is shown on each generated page in the footer. Now, the author of php-nuke says:
>1) that nobody is allowed to remove this (c)
>2) if someone wnats to remove it, he has to pay 300 US$ as licensing-fee, named "Commercial Licence" (as to see here:http://www.phpnuke.org/modules.php?name=Commercial_License)
Now, please answer me:
>(1) Because of the GPL, am i not allowed to comment the (c) Line out? So the Line stays in the code? GPL tells me, that i can change the code as i want - so if i comment the line out, it still exists in the code, but there is no output.

FSF: The copyright notice in PHPNuke is not a (2)(c) notice. So, you need not retain it on the program's output.

>(2) Isn't it a GPL violation to offer this Licence? I just can't believe that this is OK - of course, the Author could offer two versions of his own source code: a gpl version and a "to-pay" version, but in fact, he distributes an "GPL version with enhanced Licence-Options". It is onw Software-Product, under one Licence, and please do not forget: It is based on the work of another gpl project "thatware". Is this ok?

FSF: I had never heard that PHPNuke was based on other GPL software. Are you sure that's the case?

FSF: It looks like the PHPNuke author is misinterpreting the GPL. This can probably be cleared up with a simple e-mail. The copyright holders of Thatware should write to the author of PHPNuke. Please let the copyright holders of Thatware know about the issue, and that we're glad to provide advice on this.

--
-Dave Turner
GPL Compliance Engineer
Support my work: http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=novalis&p=FSF

Note: WEBMASTERS: Please copy this article to your news section if you would like to.

• Re: FSF Determines FB is Breaking the GNU/GPL by Raven on Saturday, October 23, 2004 @ 16:41:30 EDT
  
  
  • Re: FSF Determines FB is Breaking the GNU/GPL by 64bitguy on Saturday, October 23, 2004 @ 16:59:34 EDT