[Bf-committers] Blender FAQ for Artists and the GPL
Tom Musgrove
tommusgrove__ at hotmail.com
Mon Nov 15 07:05:01 CET 2004
I have some suggested changes for the GPL FAQ,
In a few sentences, what is the GPL?
The GPL license gives endusers additional rights that are normally reserved
to the copyright holder, such as distributing and making copys of work (in
this case Blender), make derivative works (ie add new features to Blender),
and the freedom to sell the work to others. These additional rights are
granted as long as the enduser also grants these same rights to their
endusers under the terms of the GPL, and as long as the individual abides by
the terms of the GPL.
and
Can my organization use Blender internally without giving up our valuable
changes to our competitors?
The GPL actually does allow your organization to use a modified version of
Blender internally without offering the source-code as long as you do not
distribute it outside your company or organization. However, many
organizations find it is actually more valuable to donate their changes back
to the community. The reason this is so, is that maintaining a blender
'branch' with different code changes and patches requires maintenaince. If
the patches and changes are donated back to the Blender foundation, they can
be integrated into blender, thus shifting or sharing the cost and burden of
maintenance from the corporation. Thus unless the changes are related to
the coorporations 'core competency' and is expected to provide a clear
'competitive advantage', it is generally recommended that the changes be
donated back.
Also, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the wording of the answer to
How does the GPL and Blender benefit me?
but can't think of alternative wording at the moment.
LetterRip
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