[phpGroupWare-developers] GPLv3 (was Who wants to play?)

[Dave Hall]

On Mon, 2009-11-09 at 12:49 +0100, Maât wrote:
> Sigurd Nes wrote:
>
> for the remaining license issue i don't understand why there is a
> problem with GPL v3
> 
> can someone explain please ?

Sigurd wants to import felamimail from eGroupWare - which depends on
PEAR code (which is PHP licensed code - read not GPLv2 or v3
compatible).  His work around for the licensing issue is to play the
same game as eGroupWare by telling people to download the PHP licensed
code separately.  This may actually constitute a GPL violation as there
is expert opinion around which suggests include/require in PHP
constitute static linking - regardless of if you distribute the code
with it or not.

Regardless of which license the project uses, I feel that it is totally
unacceptable for a GNU package to attempt skirt around the requirements
of the GPL in such a way.

In addition to this the FSF has already indicated (and communicated this
to Sigurd) that they would not support the project reverting to GPLv2
just so the project can use some GPLv2 only code.

Sigurd has been playing divisive games around licensing for years, first
it was suggesting using AGPL, then it was switching back to GPLv2.  This
is one of the reasons why I stopped working on the project, having to
constantly deal with Sigurd and his stupid games.  He may claim to be
ignorant of the above issues, but that is crap it has been explained to
him at length many times.

As someone else has already suggested, Sigurd is free to take the GPLv2
code, fork and start his own project, and so long as he complies with
the requirements of the GPL he is free to do as he wants.

Good luck to those who continue on with the project, I just hope you
have the patience and energy to deal with Sigurd and his games.

Cheers

Dave