Spotting GPL violations

Philip Webster phil at philipwebster.com
Sat Dec 11 13:21:59 UTC 2004


Hi,
A piece of software has come to my attention that may be violating the 
GPL. Details are as follows:
- The software is an interface (GUI, intermediary routines) between a 
proprietary operating system and the Free printing system GIMP-Print.
- The company distributing the software is not offering source code, and 
has not licensed the derivative work under the GPL.
- The software can only be downloaded after a 'donation' is received to 
unlock the download page.
- The software is downloaded as a complete package which includes both 
proprietary and GPL-licensed code. The interface itself is useless 
without GIMP-Print and was written specifically for it, rather than as 
an abstract printer interface and GUI. It is also possible to download 
the Free parts separately.

This sounds a LOT like a GPL violation, but I'd be interested to hear 
what others' first impressions are.

I'll post some links to more detailed evidence once the initial batch of 
responses come in...


Regards,

Phil




More information about the Discussion mailing list