GRRLIB License *RESOLVED*

[Not sure if this is the correct area of the forum to discuss this. If not please feel free to move this post to the appropriate section]

I seem to recall some people mentioning that GRRLIB uses the gpl v3 license. However, the Trunk download that I have (as far as I know it the the complete official download) which comes with the doxygen documentation has a license file which does not seem to be gpl v3. In the end the two licenses may ammount to the same thing but they are not the same. Is this correct?

I tried to read the license but all that legalese makes it a bit confusing. Here are my questions regarding licensing:

I think I correctly understand that any compiled software made using GRRLIB must conform to and include the GRRLIB license file.

However, what about source code? If I distribute an uncompiled version of my program that uses GRRLIB but does not actually contain the GRRLIB library or any GRRLIB compiled software, does it need to conform to the GRRLIB license? My instinct would say "no" since this would mean that any source code or source code snippet that included any GRRLIB calls would then need to include the GRRLIB license (i.e. many posts in this forum and/or source code examples on the internet would be in violation of the license).

If the above assumption is correct then where is the fine line drawn?

Let us consider code writer programs. I am working on a program which allows beginner users to create Wiibrew c-code using a drag and drop environment. My program strictly writes c-code. It does NOT compile anything, so that all the glory for the compile can be given to the programmers who put in a lot of hard work to create the DevKitPro tool set. In such a case, since my program only creates c-code that uses GRRLIB but does itself use GRRLIB itself, it should not need to comply and include the GRRLIB license. Of course as soon as the end user compiles the c code, thus using GRRLIB, the license would need to be complied with and included.

Now lets consider a similar case to the above but in addition to the program making the c-code it also creates a Makefile which the end user can use to compile the program. The same should still apply. Since the program does not actually use GRRLIB (i.e. no executable code using GRRLIB is used/made) then the license should not be applicable. Again, as soon as the end user uses the Makefile (or some other Makefile) to compile the program, the license would apply and thus need to be included.

Now if we take it even a step further and create a BAT file which would actually perform the compile and the GUI program would automatically run the BAT file then GRRLIB is being used to create a executable program and thus the license would have to be included with the GUI program.

Is my understanding correct? I am not asking this because I want to skip the inclusion of the GRRLIB license. I will, most likely, include it anyway to be on the safe side but I would like to hear the opinions of others as to when it is and is not necessary to include and comply with the GRRLIB license.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2010 02:24AM by LordAshes.

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LordAshes
[Not sure if this is the correct area of the forum to discuss this. If not please feel free to move this post to the appropriate section]

In fact the proper page would have been the GRRLIB forum.

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LordAshes
I seem to recall some people mentioning that GRRLIB uses the gpl v3 license. However, the Trunk download that I have (as far as I know it the the complete official download) which comes with the doxygen documentation has a license file which does not seem to be gpl v3. In the end the two licenses may ammount to the same thing but they are not the same. Is this correct?

The current license of GRRLIB is MIT.

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LordAshes
I tried to read the license but all that legalese makes it a bit confusing.

This text is from the ReadMe file:

GRRLIB is released under the MIT Licence.  If we had chosen the GPL licence you
would be +forced+ (legally required) to release your source code.  But in the
spirit of "free as in FREE" we have left you with the +option+ to release your
source code.

We do +request+ that you tell others about us by naming our library (GRRLIB) in
the credits of your game/application.  And, if you +choose+ to do that, we
encourage you to use our logo to achieve it; You can find our logo here:
[grrlib.santo.fr]

We like to be credited for our work, that's all. The Wii homebrew scene is small so it's always a good thing to respect what others did to improve the quality of games and apps.
I know you are working on Wii Game Studio, at least some kind of Expansion. Nowhere on the Web site or in the documentation GRRLIB is mentioned. It would be nice to see in the About box something like: "Using GRRLIB 4.2.0". Since the product is sold with GRRLIB and we don't make any money from that, a small thank you would be appreciated.

Thanks for the info. Actually the program I was referring to (that I am working on) is Wii Construction Set. It is similar to WGS but it does not automatically compile the game (so that it is evident that that part of the process is done by DevKitPro) and it generates much cleaner and well documented c-code so that it can be used by beginner programmers to learn some of the Wii related c-code.

It is true that I am also working on adding a lot of functionality to WGS which the author (with my permission) will make official (or at leats make most of it official) in his next release.

I was asking this question for my own program because it does NOT perform any compiling so it should not need to follow the GRRLIB license. WGS, on the other hand, (as far as I can tell) does require the license because it creates an executable (which obviously uses GRRLIB). I have already suggested to the author that the license be included in the next release (even if it might not be needed) to avoid further "fire" from others.

Thanks for pointing out the license location...I will include it in my program anyway (even though it should not be necessary) and I will prepare it for the WGS author to include. Unfortunetly I don't know if he will include an About box. Currently, as far as I know, he does not even have an About box for this own credit...although I might be wrong. I will suggest it to him. That way he can also acknowledge my free contributions .

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LordAshes
Thanks for pointing out the license location...

Since version 4.1.0 the licence is at the top of every .c and .h file in the library. It's also in LICENCE.TXT, README.html and the doxygen documentation.

Oh, I see...I found the license.txt file (previous to the post) but I did not realize that this was the official MIT license.

Thanks for the info. In that case I already have it prepare for inclusion with WGS and I am trying to convince the author to make a About box which also provides credit to the GRRLIB team.