[thelist] Copyright breach - advice please

[Mattias Thorslund]

Andre Avorio wrote:

>It means (free translation):
>
>Weslley Interactive (sic!) offers some PHP scripts free of charge,
>under the GNU license. You can download these scripts from our website
>and install them on your server, but you cannot make any change on the
>source code without previous authorization from Weslley Interactive.
>  
>

Anyone remotely familiar with the GPL ("GNU License") will realize that 
their statement isn't even consistent with the GPL, or open source in 
general for that matter.  The GPL explicitly permits anyone to make 
changes to the code, for their own use, but if they distribute it, they 
are under certain obligations such as give credit to the original 
authors as well as keep the same license. 

I wonder what benefit these folks actually imagine they get out of 
violating the license this?  What possible benefit can they derive from 
claiming the code as their own that they COULDN'T get by playing by the 
rules of the GPL?  Yeah, people will think they wrote it, but IMO it's 
silly to run the risk of being exposed as a fraud - hardly worth it... 
Discouraging people from changing the code means they also lose out on 
the opportunity to get bug fixes and improvements from others.

I suspect this is the result of a poor understanding of the the GPL and 
the concepts of open source, by the Weslley people, that is.  If I were 
the rightful author of this code, I'd begin by sending these folks a 
polite but clear message that explains where they have breached the 
license and demand that they make the necessary changes in order to 
comply with it. Again, I don't see any valid reason (even self-serving) 
why they would foolhardily refuse to comply.

/Mattias Thorslund

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