[Bf-committers] GPL or (c) infringement?

[Robert Wenzlaff (AB8TD)]

On Thursday 10 March 2005 11:28, Tom M wrote:
> >Since the max price he's asking is $20
> > is that _that_ much over a "copying fee" to worry about.  OpenOffice.org
> > charges ~$10 if you want a CD mailed.
>
> There is also a 7$ shipping fee he charges so 27$.

High, but off by a factor, not an order of magnatude....

>But then again, looking on Ebay, he's _offering_ re-branded Blender, I don't
>see that he's actually sold any....

>There have been about 30 sales since Febuary 23 (ebays completed
>auctions appears to only go back a bit less than a month...)

>Also the seller is apparently located in singapore, so the laws in
>that country might be violated as well.

Actually, I'd expect them to be very lax about it.   I have some 5 USD  
AutoCad 2004 disks at work (If I could only read Chinese...)

But I'm sure Ebay doesn't want to be party to his infringment of the image 
copyrights...

> How can it be GPL, *AND* use Qt on Windows?  I wonder if Trolltech knows
> about these guys.

Hmmm.....  It's a very thin line they are walking.  The QT licence and _L_GPL 
are compatable for non-commercial applications.  Trolltech only requires a 
paid licence for commercial windows apps based on QT.  IF (and it's a big if 
given to how they are advertising) the money is a "copying fee" not a 
software purchase price, then they may be in the clear (barely), but I doubt 
it.  The "you can't ever use QT on windows without paying" is a bit of FUD 
put out by Gnome to cast doubt on KDE...   

(FUD, it's not just for Microsoft anymore...)

>But I am not going to spoil my time trying to find how good he follows  
>GPL in every detail.. I bet we even violate it (where can you get a  
>CDROM with our sources?)

Since the BF does not distribute binary only copies of Blender on CD, they are 
not required to offer them.  The rule is you must make the source available 
the same way you make the binaries available so anyone getting your binary 
from you can also get your source from you (example:  buy a CD but have no 
internet connection...   you can't get the source from CVS and that violates 
the GPL).   

The biggest thing is the 2000 textures and backgrounds he's offering on the 
CD.  I'll bet good money he didn't make those all himself.  
-- 
********************************************
Robert Wenzlaff  rwenzlaff at soylent-green.com