Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Dissecting a proprietary protocol - a GPL licensing issue
Any dissector, either developed as a normal dissector or as a plugin will
automatically be GPL. It can not be anything else.
Note that GPL only relates to DISTRIBUTION, not internal use.
If you extend a GPL software for internal use only and never
distribute it you then do not need to provide source code since you
are not distributing the code.
However there are two problems, IF you distribute it to a third party
you MUST provide
the sourcecode upon request. You can not contract away the rights for
anyone you distribute it to to not provide sourcecode.
Please see an IP-rights laywer to see if developing the dissector for
a third party counts as distribution or not.
On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:46:16 -0800 (PST), Shai Machnes <shai_m2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dear powers-that-be (i.e. Ethereal developers):
>
> I work for a company developing embedded systems for
> 3rd parties. And a big part of our work is protocols.
> Proprietary ones.
>
> I want to give my clients, in addition to the protocol
> code a plugin to Ethereal to dissect the protocol.
>
> Can I do that?
Yes, it will still be GPL though so if someone you give it to
redistributes it you might be in trouble.
> Does the plug-in / dissector / protocol definition has
> to be GPLed?
Yes.
>
> If the answer to the above is "yes", can I get around
> this by placing the real dissection in a separate
> processs and IPC with it via a shell plugin which I
> will GPL?
No you can not get around it like that. The only way to get around
it is to never distribute the GPL code.
Copying it to colleague for internal use withing a department is not
considered distribution.
Copying it to external parties is considered distribution.
>
> With thanks,
>
> Shai
>
> P.S.
> I don't think it matters much, but perhaps I
> should mention my client will use the plugin only for
> internal development purposes and not distribute it
> further.
As long as your costomer undertsands that an ethereal dissector is
just as good as a protocol specification and releasing the dissector
is the same as publishing the protocol,
and as long as your customer understands that if he gives the
dissector or the modified version of ehtereal to anyone, that he will
then be required to hand over the sourcecode which essentially means
"publish the protocol".
IANAL
If it is for pure internal use I would not worry too much if i were you.
Since you distribute it to another company under contract I dont know
what that counts as.
Please concact FSF and ask them how the GPL applies in this case.
Never take legal advice from anonymous strangers on the internet.
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do?
> http://my.yahoo.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ethereal-dev mailing list
> Ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.ethereal.com/mailman/listinfo/ethereal-dev
>
