[ILUG] GPL violation?

[Aidan Delaney]

On Mon, 2004-11-15 at 10:50 +0000, Conor Daly wrote:
> Just came across a helpdesk suite called helpdesk revolution which claims on
> their front page to be "Help Desk Support Software.100% Free GPL Help Desk"
> and then, on the download page (in a jpg so you can't copy the text):
> 
> "Copyright 2004.  GPL Limited License Terms
>  You may not Resell this Software
>  You may not Redistribute this Software without prior authorisation
>  You may not use this Software to create Direct Profit
>  You may not Reengineer this Software
> 
>  contact legal at helpdeskrevolutions.com for any questions..."
> 
> I presume this is a violation of the GPL.  Not that I dispute their right to
> impose restrictions on their software but claiming "100% Free GPL" along
> with contradictory restrictions seems a little underhand to me...
There are a few things here.  They state "GPL Limited Licence Terms", is
this in reference to the GNU General Public Licence or some Grotesque
Pathetic Lie of a licence?

If it is a reference to the GNU GPL then their extra terms are a
violation of the GPL iff the code they are distributing is based on
someone elses.  If it's their own code I'm sure they can licence it
under the GPL "with restrictions", however the GNU GPL and the
restrictions they mention are mutually incompatible.

I suggest you contact the company first.  Let them know that you're
interested in their software and would like to know what "GPL Licence
Terms" means.  The parties involved may simply not understand the GNU
GPL.

...

I downloaded the code.  It contains an LGPL'ed PHP email class and the
rest of the code seems to be their own.  The code is pathetic, stay away
from this product.  I can advise on other helpdesk software (GPL'ed
stuff) that is better, if you're interested.
-- 
Aidan Delaney   email: adelaney at cs.may.ie
                web:   http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney
                gpg:   http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney/public_key.asc
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/attachments/20041115/2ee54384/attachment.pgp