Re: [gtk-list] Re: Selling a GTK+ application for money?

[Erik Mouw <J A K Mouw its tudelft nl>]

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 12:26:47 +0530 (IST), Sachin Garg wrote:
> I write a new GTK+ widget, derived from other GTK+ widgets, but which
> use some specific code which is not free (both in terms of cost and
> freedom).
> 
> Has the source code to the new widget got to be distributed freely?

Yes. Your widget will be a derived work of the GTK, so it has to use the
GPL. If the license of the other source code doesn't allow to release the
source, you can't release the widget at all.

> Can one do something like: provide teh source to the new widget and
> put the onus on the end user to supply the missing parts
> herself/himself? Is this legally and ethically acceptable?

I'm not sure. I *think* it is legal, because it's like running a GPL'ed
application on a proprietary Unix with a proprietary libc. Oh, forgot to
tell you: I'm not a lawyer.

Don't be surprised if nobody uses your widget: finding the needed source
to compile the widget will look like a (too) big hurdle. Why don't you
just rewrite the non-free source code from scratch?


Erik

-- 
J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Department
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems,
Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031,  2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-15-2785859  Fax: +31-15-2781843  Email J.A.K.Mouw@its.tudelft.nl
WWW: http://www-ict.its.tudelft.nl/~erik/