Re: DIam licensing

[Thimo Langbehn <thimo g4t3 de>]

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Dear Victor,

glad to head you enjoy Dia.

On 11/15/11 18:21, Serrano, Victor wrote:
> Good Afternoon, I work for  a company and I am interested in using DIA, I've tested and think it is real 
> good and I'd like to deploy it to several PCs.
> However I am concerned with the licensing of the product since it is not going to be for personal use, I 
> know it is free software but  is it ok to use it on a company environment?

In short: Yes, it is entirely ok!
If you put the binary on a public server (for download), put the
source there as well.

Long version:
You are right about Dia being free software (GPLv2). And the first
effect of free software is that you are allowed to run the program
for any purpose, in any environment.
The license of Dia does have no implications with regard to the
purpose or license of the diagrams you create, modify etc.
As long as you just use (install, start etc.) the software or
provide links to existing dia download sites (for clients etc.) you
do not have any obligations.

Things change slightly if you start to 'distribute' Dia itself (the
program).
Then you might have to provide the source code as well (see section
3 of the GPLv2).
And, if you would distribute a modified version of Dia, you would
have to provide those modifications as well (under GPLv2).

In your case, if you (your company) provides the dia binary to
others (clients, public), you have to distribute its source code as
well, but as long as its use or even modifications stay 'in house'
you don't have to do anything.

That being said, if you make changes/improvements, it would be nice
to provide them back to this project.

Regards, and enjoy Dia,

Thimo Langbehn

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