[Gnash] Gnash License and Scope

[Geoffrey W. Curtis]

Hello,

I was just wondering if there had been any consideration of say changing the “scope” of the Gnash and its licensing.  For something like this I would really like to see at least a dual license in place where say flash/actionscript handling and other reusable components are provided in a library under LGPL with the actual rendering and plugin/application interface functionality under GPL.

 

The one problem I have with GPL is its requirement of derivative works having to be completely open source as well even if you want to solely use the code for a purpose only somewhat coinciding with the original applications intent.

 

I am not sure if I have totally misinterpreted the way this and other various OSI licenses are handled, so please enlighten me if my concerns are misplaced.

 

I have been looking at flash, svg and vector graphics in general lately from a game development standpoint for possible use for game interface creation.  Although overall I have no problem with GPL in general, the interpretation and playback of the flash file format can go beyond the usage of solely a stand alone player or plugin interface.  I think an effort to separate flash (or even just general vector graphics) interpretation and associated resource management into a reusable library, which is then built upon to create the plugin, player, renderer, etc., would be far more beneficial in the end.  This way all sorts of vector graphics applications could be made, or at least with a somewhat more liberal license, something like the polygon tessellation code could be used by someone never intending to do anything related to flash (as an example).

 

But that is just a thought.  I had planned on eventually looking into modifying Thatcher Ulrich’s GameSWF as well since it was one of the few truly public domain flash player sources I had found so far.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Geoffrey W. Curtis

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