Has anyone looked into the product by www.hype ric.com before?

[Paul L. Allen]

Voon, Ton writes: 

> The GPL insists that changes to that core code must be available to their
> customers

No, it doesn't.  It states that modified source must be available to ALL
third parties under the GPL for no more than a reasonable distribution
cost (and the FAQ makes it clear that "third parties" means anybody who
asks for it).  You can charge for the modified program (but must make
source available under the GPL).  You can charge for installation.  You can
charge for support.  But you MUST make the source available to anyone who
asks, even if they have not purchased your program and/or support. 

> These changes do not have to be submitted back to the Nagios community.

My unreliable memory seems to think that previous versions of the GPL
stated explicitly that changes should be submitted back, but I could
be wrong.  Certainly the current license makes it clear that the Nagios
community could request the changed source and cannot be refused because
anybody can request it and get it for no more than a reasonable copying
charge. 

> However, in my view, to be a "good citizen", those modifications should 
> come back to us for inclusion into future versions. In return, we would
> be happy to publicise their involvement. 

You don't have to justify it by invoking altruism.  It makes economic
sense to submit patches rather than having to patch each new release. 

There is another alternative if Ethan has copyright over all the
submissions as well as his own work.  The copyright holder is permitted
to release the work under non-GPL terms as well as GPL terms.  So Ethan
could license a propietary version identical to the GPL version that
Plumtree could sell under proprietary terms.  The only difference would
be that Plumtree would not be required to release the source code and
Plumtree could insist that their customers not give others copies of the.
binaries.  Gnu discourage this, but it is permitted. 

-- 
Paul Allen
Softflare Support 




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