On Sep 22, 2004, at 5:33 AM, Ralph Angenendt wrote:
He has to link the database *somehow* into his program. Look up what the GPL has to say about that.
And: Hey, if you do not like the license of a program - do not use it. It is simple as that. If you want to use it - fulfill the license.
I think he believed he *was* fulfilling the license. He was, like some other companies apparently are doing, redistributing the database portion only. The "source" is open for anyone to look at (the database), and he made no attempt to hide where it came from and actively advertised that it was the ClamAV database. He was only creating (as I understand it) a gui and engine that compared files against the database in a way he wanted to keep proprietary.
The actual database he kept open for anyone to use or examine.
The problem, from the sounds of it, isn't "you're not following the GPL so you have to stop", it's "I thought I was following the GPL but your interpretation is different..."
I guess the only definitive answer would have to come from the database maintainers.
Personally I think the intent of the database's license was to keep it "open", not be stolen into other projects (or commercial projects). The fact that the person writing this is openly advertising where the database comes from and is trying to do good by the ClamAV team shows that his intent isn't to steal other people's work, but to expand its usage to people who ordinarily wouldn't be exposed to the ClamAV project. He's trying to work with the ClamAV people.
At any rate, this should probably be resolved soon...this type of argument is one of the criticisms of the GPL, that if any code is used then it opens the whole project to becoming open source. The database is a distinct entity in this project that can be ripped out and another database substituted instead; why can't a distinct portion of a program be GPL and held under GPL? The BSD license allows people to *integrate* the open code into proprietary projects and claim it as your own. This windows project isn't attempting to do that.
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