AW: Re: [Nagios-users] Nagios 3.0,natively windows codes,support mysql,support agentless monitor , new web interface,more,Greatly

[sean finney]

hey,

On Mon, Aug 29, 2005 at 01:18:41AM +0200, Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> >of course, this largely depends on whether or not you need to compile
> >them against nagios source/headers, whether or not the modules
> >are useful in their own right apart from nagios, and other factors
> >which could determine their status as "derived works" or not.
> 
> Yes. This is actually pretty tricky. One of the modules I'm writing now 
> uses a spooling mechanism for binary data to be distributed to several 
> hosts. This spooling mechanism was originally proprietary, but if we 
> have to make it GPL, then so be it. It's possible though that GPL'd code 
> can be linked to proprietary code (rather than vice versa) which would 
> be the case. This is what the lawyers are looking in to.

unfortunately you can't have gpl'd code link against non-gpl'd
code either.  that would definitely fall under either the "modification"
category or "derivative work".  this has been a major PITA in debian, because
there are a lot of good-intentioned software projects that license their
code under the GPL, but then link it against openssl libraries[1].  

this ties in pretty heavily to section 2b, with a bit of 4, and 6.

of course ianal, but from my dealings with the gpl, your best
bet is to change/clarify license terms with ethan to allow proprietary
modules if that's what you want.  or just gpl the modules, which would
make everyone else happy :)

> >this is true, under the circumstance that you provide source code
> >along with the binary GPL'd software, or have otherwise provided
> >the information they need to locate the original source code (or
> >give an offer to provide said code).  sections 1 and 2 only address how
> >you can handle the source code--section 3 clarifies for what you can do
> >with binary-only distribution.
> 
> The stuff at oss.op5.se is source-code only, so that's ok then.

i was really referring to the final product that you distribute
to your customers.

anyway, i'll follow up with the rest in private...


	sean

[1] there are some cases where you can get away with such linking, but
    only if such libraries are considered part of the "core operating
    system".
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