Re: GPL question

[James Michael DuPont]

> I've written a web-based system in Java that allows
> people to sort of
> create their own functionality with my API. 

So they "link" directly to it?

>It
> integrates their work
> (which is basically an applet but can work with and
> extend the existing
> bits of theprogram) and stores it on my server.  
Like a callback system,
> 
> I definitely want the "drops" people submit to be
> GPL'd and also the ones
> I write myself.  This way the usefulness of the
> application will grow
> quickly.  
Then put it under the GPL, not LGPL.

> 
> But I wonder how the GPL treats the application
> framework itself.  It's
> an applet helped out with beans/servlets.  If I
> release that part under
> the GPL and post the code, what does that allow
> people to do with it?

The Client Server model is difficult, I am not sure
how it can be handled. See my "Modest Proposal for the
GNU infrastructure license" for a discussion of that
on this list.

The question is if the GPL binds anything more than a
simple static or dynamic method invokation. As soon as
you go across the network it gets tricky. If the
client and server code is both GPLEd, no problem, but
anyone can make non-free clients and servers based on
this inteface. The interface is not GPLed, the code
it.

Regrads,

Mike

=====
James Michael DuPont

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