[Zope-dev] ZPL and GPL

Michael R. Bernstein webmaven@lvcm.com
26 Jun 2001 12:13:36 -0700


On 26 Jun 2001 09:30:49 +1000, Richard Jones wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Jun 2001 05:22, Michael "R." Bernstein wrote:
> > On 25 Jun 2001 10:26:10 -0400, Shane Hathaway wrote:
> > > According to management, there's a zope-license list somewhere and we
> > > expect to move to a GPL compatible license. Paul says:
> > >
> > > "I think the goal should be for Zope and Python to converge on the same
> > > license, with perhaps the new license being some off-the-shelf license
> > > like Apache's."
> >
> > Hmm. So a BSD style license, then. Are there currently any Zope-derived
> > distributions that are proprietary (third-party or DC's)?
> 
> Absolutely! We use Zope as a core component in our product that's about to 
> "hit the shelves".

I guess the question is whether your product is simply a combined
distribution of Zope and a proprietary product, or if you've made
changes to Zope itself.

> > If not, does DC anticipate there being this kind of third-party
> > proprietary derived distribution in the future?
> 
> Absolutely! We have several products in mind that are based on Zope.

Again, are these products making proprietary changes to Zope itself, or
simply creating proprietary products and other add-ons to Zope?

> We will be distributing the entirety of the source code of all open-source 
> components of our product. We cannot distribute the source code of our 
> product - that would be sheer foolishness. We've invested about 2 man-years 
> in the code, and we're not about to just give that away. Our investors would 
> string us up!

Is your product a 'Zope Product'? If so, I think that's perfectly
acceptable, and Zope's license should certainly allow such. Perhaps the
LGPL for Zope would work.

Michael Bernstein.