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pay for proprietary license ?

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ivan posta

Tuesday 24 March 2009 7:42:37 am

hi

I'm start to buy an ezPublish Hosting Provider to start my new business, I need a FREE OF CHARGE Open Source CMS so I have some doubt if I have to buy EZ proprietary license for commercial site ?

1) I set up ezPublish on MY hosting for my customer projects then I get money for setup and from my service as admin:
will I have to buy a proprietary license ?

2) I change design, css and get money from my works :
will I have to buy a proprietary license ?
will I have to release my work as gpl ?

3) I change template and get money from my works :
will I have to buy a proprietary license ?
will I have to release my work as gpl ?

4) I make a site from 0, new template , new design, new css and get money from my works:
will I have to buy a proprietary license ?
will I have to release my work as gpl ?

5) I don't insert references and copyright note to ez publish at the end page:
will I have to buy a proprietary license ?

thanks

Björn [email protected]

Tuesday 24 March 2009 7:52:45 am

Hi,

you don`t need licenses in any of the cases. All YOUR code is under your copyright and your license.

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Bård Farstad

Tuesday 24 March 2009 6:04:42 pm

Actually all code written on top of eZ Publish needs to be distributed under the GPL v2 License. You cannot release code you have built yourself on top of eZ Publish under another license unless you have an agreement with eZ Systems AS.

-bård

Documentation: http://ez.no/doc

ivan posta

Tuesday 24 March 2009 11:41:05 pm

I'm confusion on Bård Farstad reply :)

I need an FREE OF CHARGE Open Source CMS.

In what cases ( 1,2,3,4,5) can I use EZ free of charge ?

In what cases ( 2,3,4,5) I have to distributed under the GPL v2 License ?

Norman Leutner

Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:37:48 am

Hi,

what Bård actually means is that the core code is available under the GPL license which means that you are allowed to use the code as long as you stay under the GPL licence.

Reguarding your own written code you can use the license modell you want. (As long as the code don't repend on the eZ code). For example within your own classes.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Best regards

Norman Leutner

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http://ez.no/partners/worldwide_partners/all2e_gmbh

Gaetano Giunta

Wednesday 25 March 2009 1:49:41 am

@Ivan: I think you need to read a little bit first about the GPL license, to better understand what you can and what you cannot do.

You cannot DISTRIBUTE derivative works of eZ Publish, unless you
- also publish the sources of your derivate work, or
- buy an eZ commercial license

So if you are creating a completely customized version of the software and only host it on your own servers / use it for your intranet, you are free of any charge, as you are not redistributing anything. Even if you make a lot of money out of it.

If you create say a custom eZ Publish extension and sell it to customers, thus distributing it, you are bound by the GPL, as it is a derivative work, and should also publish your source code as GPL (unless as said above you use a commercial eZP license).
Even if you distribute your own extension for free, not making any money, you are bound by the GPL.

I am not a lawyer, but I'd say that regarding your questions the answers are:

1 - no. But you REALLY SHOULD get a support contract to get patches and security fixes as soon as they are released

2,3,4 - no mention of derived code as long as css is mentioned. Are design elements covered by the gpl? look it up here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation. Short answer: no if you do not redistribute, yes if you do.

5 - this really is not part of any copyright / licensing statement, so it does not matter

Principal Consultant International Business
Member of the Community Project Board

Derick Rethans

Wednesday 25 March 2009 2:27:42 am

One comment about 5. If you modify the templates that come with eZ Publish to *remove* the copyright notes, than you're creating a derivate work and the same things apply as for code. Creating your own templates should not have this issue. Although some people question whether using APIs such as template operators in templates also invoke the GPL derivate law, I don't think that's how we should interpret it.

(Note: this is a personal opinion, and I am not a lawyer)

ivan posta

Thursday 26 March 2009 12:26:39 am

Gaetano Giunta say:

"So if you are creating a completely customized version of the software and only host it on your own servers / use it for your intranet, you are free of any charge, as you are not redistributing anything. Even if you make a lot of money out of it."

if I no customize all the site and only host it on my space (buy from an Hosting Provider) : is the same for "internet" for over the world ?

Gaetano Giunta

Thursday 26 March 2009 3:39:47 am

'if I no customize all the site and only host it on my space (buy from an Hosting Provider) : is the same for "internet" for over the world ?'

Again: as long as you are not distributing your modifications to a 3rd party, you can do whatever you want.
It does not matter if the website is shown on an intranet or to 10 million people over the internet - all it matters is that you have given your modified code / templates to some client of yours or you have not.
The fact that a client accesses the website does not mean that you are distributing the software to him, so it does not impose further legal restrictions.

@Derick - hair splitting, but a nice observation!

Last note: when I mention the obligation to "publish" your code in the previous post, it does not in fact mean that you are forced to make it available on a public website. It just means that you have to provide it (full source) to the person you are giving your modified version to. And since it is GPL, that person is of course free to post it on the internet, make money out of it or sell it to your competitor, you cannot prevent him.

Principal Consultant International Business
Member of the Community Project Board

ivan posta

Thursday 26 March 2009 5:19:49 am

ok :)

thanks for all person who helpme on this post.

ciao from 'Roma'

ivan posta

Friday 27 March 2009 5:20:44 am

ANOTHER ONE :)

If I customize my application on my server and my client use it;

can I sell my service as S.a.a.S (software as a Service) ?

Bruce Morrison

Sunday 29 March 2009 7:39:57 pm

Since this discussion seems to come up every 12 months or so it seems to make sense to have an official Licence FAQ page on the eZ site. This thread contains plenty of good info to make a start.

Cheers
Bruce

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Piotrek Karaś

Sunday 29 March 2009 10:23:10 pm

@Norman:
I'm not sure this is so straightforward. I write loads of classes that use eZ persistent object model as well as I use other eZ API. Of course, those classes provide new logic of some sort every time, but also are often heavily dependent on eZ core code. My feeling so far has been that it should also be considered derivative work. What do you think, guys?

@Derick:
Another unclear example: if I write an eZ extension that ads another tab to the admin interface - isn't that derivative of some sort?

@Bruce:
A very good idea about FAQ for GPL!

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