[drupal-devel] Licence issues using GPL'ed SquirrelMail code in mailhandler.module?
Hello all , I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact? Regards, Mark
Hello, On Sun, 2005-05-22 at 13:23 +0100, Mark Leicester wrote:
I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact?
You should be able to, they are both squirrel mail and drupal are gpl, and you will be compiling with the terms of the licence in that you have to distribute the source with the product. The only thing I am not sure about but I think will be a problem is that you have to keep the copyright messages in tack, but because you are only taking snippets you may need to transfer the copyright messages. Gordon
The other issue is long term maintainability. Their code will change, and we might do the same to what we borrowed from them. So, do we have to do periodic sync ups? Or do we not change anything and just get an update from them every now and then? Whichever way we choose, we have to understand the implications of it long term. On 5/22/05, Gordon Heydon <gordon@heydon.com.au> wrote:
Hello,
On Sun, 2005-05-22 at 13:23 +0100, Mark Leicester wrote:
I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact?
You should be able to, they are both squirrel mail and drupal are gpl, and you will be compiling with the terms of the licence in that you have to distribute the source with the product.
The only thing I am not sure about but I think will be a problem is that you have to keep the copyright messages in tack, but because you are only taking snippets you may need to transfer the copyright messages.
Gordon
Hello, With a single function I would maintain this separately from SquirrelMail. I would not bother going through the effort. Gordon. On Sun, 2005-05-22 at 12:01 -0400, K B wrote:
The other issue is long term maintainability.
Their code will change, and we might do the same to what we borrowed from them.
So, do we have to do periodic sync ups? Or do we not change anything and just get an update from them every now and then?
Whichever way we choose, we have to understand the implications of it long term.
On 5/22/05, Gordon Heydon <gordon@heydon.com.au> wrote:
Hello,
On Sun, 2005-05-22 at 13:23 +0100, Mark Leicester wrote:
I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact?
You should be able to, they are both squirrel mail and drupal are gpl, and you will be compiling with the terms of the licence in that you have to distribute the source with the product.
The only thing I am not sure about but I think will be a problem is that you have to keep the copyright messages in tack, but because you are only taking snippets you may need to transfer the copyright messages.
Gordon
!DSPAM:4290ae64257361590619230!
The best option is to read the license and/or contact the Squirrelmail folks. My understanding of the GPL is that everything is fair game as long as the same license applies. Squirrelmail's license appears to be vanilla GPL v2, so as long as your module has that license, you should be fine. The only thorn appears to be this condition for redistribution of modified copies (Section 2): a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change. But since you're lifting code, not modifying existing files, I'm not sure what this means. Also, I am definitely not a lawyer. I may have no idea what I'm talking about. Evan On 5/22/05, Mark Leicester <mark.leicester@efurbishment.com> wrote:
Hello all ,
I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact?
Regards, Mark
The approach I have taken is to lift a file containing the library function I need, and remove any other functions. I'm avoiding mixing Drupal and SM code. In theory this should aid maintainability, and enable us to quote the licence in full. I'll contact the SM people too, so that I can double check their OK on this. They've written some nice handy functions I would really rather not rewrite! :) Cheers, Mark On 22 May 2005, at 17:07, Evan Heidtmann wrote:
The best option is to read the license and/or contact the Squirrelmail folks.
My understanding of the GPL is that everything is fair game as long as the same license applies. Squirrelmail's license appears to be vanilla GPL v2, so as long as your module has that license, you should be fine. The only thorn appears to be this condition for redistribution of modified copies (Section 2):
a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
But since you're lifting code, not modifying existing files, I'm not sure what this means.
Also, I am definitely not a lawyer. I may have no idea what I'm talking about.
Evan
On 5/22/05, Mark Leicester <mark.leicester@efurbishment.com> wrote:
Hello all ,
I'm making improvements to the mailhandler (and fixing the drupal_special_chars problem by replacing with check_plain). SquirrelMail already implements a very thorough URL parser, attachment handler, and mail re-wrapper. SquirrelMail is GNU GPL, so I'm wondering if I can re-use that code rather than reinvent. What are the licence implications? Do we simply need to credit the SquirrelMail project and redistribute the licence intact?
Regards, Mark
participants (4)
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Evan Heidtmann -
Gordon Heydon -
K B -
Mark Leicester