Comment Violation of GPL and possible EULA... (Score 1) 771
Hmm... sounds like blatent criminal action to me..
- EULA violation of the student licensed developmental software, which, if the whole of the text of the EULA/license agreement is read, depending on the license in question, limits the works produced from the product to be usable for non-commercial uses only. This, of course, depends on the license of the commercial software in question.
The produced work, if so restricted legally, cannot be re-licensed under the GPL as that would be a license violation and under the GPL, is not GPL'able.
- GPL violation will occur in the event of code obfuscation since the code base which is being worked on is not the code in question. Producing un-maintainable source code which the coders/maintainers do not themselves use is a violation of the GPL requirements for inclusion into the GPL.
The fact that the company takes the work produced from the student/restricted license copy of the commercial software and modifies it to appear as if it was not produced from that tool is demonstration of criminal intent to violate a software license/commit fraud.
The fact that the company plans on incorporating GPL'd source code into their product and rendering the released source unmanigable also opens them up to legal attack by the FSF.
Personally, I would look for a 2nd/3rd legal opinion and consider the lawyer in question of dubious moral fiber and incompetant if he/she believes that doing such a thing will save the company money by defrauding and abusing:
- Educational versions of softwares which are made available in good faith for students to use.
- The GPL which works to make source code open and available.
I would think that boycotting this company's products would be a good idea since from what the original poster has noted, what the company is doing amounts to nothing short of IP theft, license violations, and intent to defraud commercial companies who produced the software development platform/software and the GPL coders, upon which their product so heavily relies upon.
Just a couple of cents. And IANAL.
- EULA violation of the student licensed developmental software, which, if the whole of the text of the EULA/license agreement is read, depending on the license in question, limits the works produced from the product to be usable for non-commercial uses only. This, of course, depends on the license of the commercial software in question.
The produced work, if so restricted legally, cannot be re-licensed under the GPL as that would be a license violation and under the GPL, is not GPL'able.
- GPL violation will occur in the event of code obfuscation since the code base which is being worked on is not the code in question. Producing un-maintainable source code which the coders/maintainers do not themselves use is a violation of the GPL requirements for inclusion into the GPL.
The fact that the company takes the work produced from the student/restricted license copy of the commercial software and modifies it to appear as if it was not produced from that tool is demonstration of criminal intent to violate a software license/commit fraud.
The fact that the company plans on incorporating GPL'd source code into their product and rendering the released source unmanigable also opens them up to legal attack by the FSF.
Personally, I would look for a 2nd/3rd legal opinion and consider the lawyer in question of dubious moral fiber and incompetant if he/she believes that doing such a thing will save the company money by defrauding and abusing:
- Educational versions of softwares which are made available in good faith for students to use.
- The GPL which works to make source code open and available.
I would think that boycotting this company's products would be a good idea since from what the original poster has noted, what the company is doing amounts to nothing short of IP theft, license violations, and intent to defraud commercial companies who produced the software development platform/software and the GPL coders, upon which their product so heavily relies upon.
Just a couple of cents. And IANAL.
