[Users] I wonder Geoext license

[Bart van den Eijnden (OSGIS)]

Hey Christopher,

so what you are saying means using the ExtJS files from cachefly will 
exempt your application from being GPL v3?

Best regards,
Bart

Christopher Schmidt wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:57:45PM -0400, Chris Holmes wrote:
>   
>> We just started up a section of the wiki to be a licensing FAQ - I hope 
>> to find some time in the next few days to help fill it out.  If people 
>> want to add questions that would help, even if you don't know the 
>> answers.  See http://www.geoext.org/trac/geoext/wiki/license
>>
>> For this question, if you're fine with a MapFish solution then you're 
>> fine with a GeoExt solution.  MapFish is GPL 3.  You can easily just 
>> think of Ext+GeoExt as GPL 3.
>>
>> Ext+GeoExt also has the additional option that you can purchase a 
>> developer license and then you will not be bound by the terms of GPL 3. 
>>     Ext is liberally licensed so it's also compatible with Ext.js's 
>> developer license.  But if you're doing the deployment on a customers 
>> site then GPL 3 should be fine for you - it only kicks in if you're 
>> making some full package that they have to download.
>>     
>
> The GPL restrictions -- specifically, the requirement to provide source code (or
> in very limited circumstances, a written promise of source code) -- applies to
> propogation or conveyance of the code. According to the FSF, since the
> Javascript code is delivered from the server of the customer to the web browser
> user, it is conveyed, and therefore subject to the terms of the GPLv3. This
> means that if you *deploy* a GeoExt based application under the terms of the
> GPLv3, it is the responsibility of that deployment to make available the source
> code under the terms of the GPLv3.
>
> (This is akin to making a compiled binary available over HTTP -- if you allow
> people to download it, you must also provide them the source to it, if it is
> released under the GPLv3. Javascript is just more 'object code'.)
>
> Regards,
>   


-- 
Bart van den Eijnden
OSGIS, Open Source GIS
bartvde at osgis.nl
http://www.osgis.nl