Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] including a wireshark view in propietary software
... they'll have to provide the GPL'ed source code too.
Thanks,
Jaap
Joshua (Shiwei) Zhao wrote:
I'm curious on another case: if they don't want to release all their
source code, but they are not selling. They only pass it to partners
for free.
Thanks,
Joshua
On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Martin Visser <martinvisser99@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joshua, GPL does not stop anyone selling the software, but it protects
access to the source code. (Lots of people sell GPL software based
solutions, but as long as they provide free access to the source code (and
they can charge nominal costs for distribution of the source code) then this
is OK).
Regards, Martin
MartinVisser99@xxxxxxxxx
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Joshua (Shiwei) Zhao <swzhao@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
So if someone modified Wireshark, they cannot sell that for commercial
purpose.
But is it ok if they simply pass that to a partner for free as a
coopoeration?
Thanks,
Joshua
On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Jaap Keuter <jaap.keuter@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Alexander Göbel wrote:
Dear Wireshark developers,
As a university student I just started working for an IT-engineering
chair. They are working on a software they plan to sell commercially.
I've read the GNU GPL and your FAQ as well but I still don't feel
competent enough to judge my situation here:
Would it be possible to include a view of Wireshark in one tab of this
program? Wireshark would be installed and run seperately of our
program,
but our program would start Wireshark and display it as a new tab
within
the program.
I think this can be considered to be "at arm's length", but I'm not
really sure.
What about just using a .dll in propietary software? The FAQ said that
would probably be a bad approach.
Nothing of this has been realized yet, it's just in our minds so far.
Personally I love the idea of free software, but for this project my
hands are tied.
Thank you for your efforts!
Best wishes
Alexander
Hi Alexander,
As the text says "at arm's length", which means something like
communicating
with Wireshark through the channels provided by the underlying OS (like
pipes or
even files) is oke. Incorporating compiled code and use it's external
interfaces, like including a DLL does make the GNU GPL applicable to
your software.
If you can channel the Wireshark screen output through an OS mechanism
into a
view in your application that probably doesn't make the GNU GPL apply to
your
software.
So far I haven't seen such integration of an GPL'ed application in
another
program, so I might have missed something.
Thanx,
Jaap
