[K12OSN] Student Record Software

[Terrell Prudé, Jr.]

On Mon, 2005-10-10 at 09:55 -0400, Ryan Collins wrote:

> On 10/7/05, Tom Hoffman <tom.hoffman at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 10/7/05, Burke Almquist <balmquist at mindfirestudios.com> wrote:
> > > Schoolmation might fit that criteria.
> > > http://www.schoolmation.com/schoolmationweb/main/index.php
> >
> > As an aside, SchoolMation 2.0 isn't free software.  The 1.x versions
> > were under the GPL, but they say they had some issues with other
> > companies (one in India, apparently) then reselling their code under
> > commercial licenses, which is prohibited under the GPL.  Rather than
> > defending their rights, they punted and just gave up on free software.
> 
> A little OT, but there is nothing in the GPL to prevent a company from
> reselling the code with a commercial license. I can take K12LTSP and
> sell it to whoever I like. Under the GPL, I have to give the same
> rights to the people I sell it to though. Now if the India company
> wasn't giving the buyers full access to the source code, then it would
> have a problem.
> 


Not entirely accurate.  Once GPL'd, always GPL'd, unless all copyright
holders to all parts of the program agree otherwise.  You cannot turn
around and sell the program, in any form, under a different license
other than the GPL, commercial or otherwise.  It appears that you may be
implying that you can do that.  In short, that Indian company was in
fact breaking the law unless it used explicitly and specifically the
GPL.  That's how it protects our freedom and why Microsoft hates it so
much.

And you're right; this is a little OT, but not entirely.  Software
Freedom is the reason for K12LTSP's existence and continued adoption and
therefore merits discussion, even here.

--TP
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