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General software and network General OS-independent software and network questions, X11, MTA, routing, etc. |
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Licensing
On an unrelated post I was advised by a learned master to learn a bit more and maybe kickstart the comatose mediawiki porting (no disrespect to orig contributors) to OpenBSD. I have little (at best) programming knowledge and am still new to BSD systems.
After day-dreaming a bit about world domination once I could successfully port an app, I realised php wasn't for me Too many files... too many functions... too many ways to program the same thing... and a google full of people with bad advice (Don't I like pointing fingers if I can't learn/interpret something quick?) I sat a few straight hours and learnt a bit of python from http://interactivepython.org yesterday. Easy to read code. Easy to modify. Looks clean The best way to learn would be to start programming something/anything, right? My question is - If I go step by step, through mediawiki code and maybe begin by translating portions of it into python. And I use the same mediawiki database in pgsql/mysql. What will the license terms of the new code be? Can it be a BSD license? Or will I have to stick to GPL since the original reference is GPLv2? Also, does structure of data in the database get covered by GPL as well? |
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I deal with IP licensing in IT contracts every day. But, I am not an attorney, so the following should not be construed as legal advice. My understanding comes from developing and managing international agreements that operate under U.S. governing law; IP rights and practices may vary by jurisdiction. As Oko recommended, you should seek the advice of counsel, and I would further recommend seeking the advice of an attorney who practices intellectual property law for the IT industry, and who would be familiar with software licensing practices in your country and internationally.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I believe this recommendation is safe: License your derivative work under the GPLv2. Even if you re-write the entire application; if you use any of the source code in review, analysis, design, or architecture, your license of that software requires to license your derivitive work under the GPL. If you do not use the source code at all, you must be able to prove you developed your work in complete isolation from that source code, and a "clean room" effort does not eliminate the possibility of litigation, it only assists in defence. -- If you wish to use licensed source code as the basis for a derivative work, you must adhere to the terms of that license. MediaWiki is open source software, licensed to you pursuant to the terms of Version 2 of the GNU General Public License ("GPL v2"). The terms of interest to you are "TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION". Article 2.B states (highlight mine), Quote:
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Thank You @jggimi. Can't find the thanks button on this Forum, would have +100 thanked you
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derived_work might also contain useful information.
In addition, I'm not sure if translating MediaWiki into Python is a useful exercise? There are already a whole bunch of Wiki's for Python.
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