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a python license problem?

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  a python license problem? Jayden <jayden.shui@gmail.com> - 2012-09-10 19:58 -0700
    Re: a python license problem? Benjamin Kaplan <benjamin.kaplan@case.edu> - 2012-09-10 20:16 -0700
    Re: a python license problem? Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2012-09-12 02:03 +1000
      Re: a python license problem? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-09-11 13:46 -0400

#28866 — a python license problem?

Python is under GPL compatible. If I develop a python code, convert it to executable and distribute the executable as a commercial software. May I need to make my source code open?

If python is under GPL, is the answer different? Thanks a lot!!

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#28867

On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 7:58 PM, Jayden <jayden.shui@gmail.com> wrote:
> Python is under GPL compatible. If I develop a python code, convert it to executable and distribute the executable as a commercial software. May I need to make my source code open?
>
> If python is under GPL, is the answer different? Thanks a lot!!
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

"GPL compatible" is not a license. It's a quality of the license.
Python's license is compatible with the GPL, which means that you can
use Python in software licensed under the GPL

Python's license (which is available at
http://docs.python.org/license.html ) does not require Python code to
be open source, nor does it prohibit commercial use.

And even if Python was under the GPL, you would still be able to
release your own programs without opening the source. You just
wouldn't be able to modify Python without releasing your changes.
That's how the userland in Mac OS X is still closed-source despite
being compiled with GCC.

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#28890

Jayden <jayden.shui@gmail.com> writes:

> Python is under GPL compatible. If I develop a python code

If you write new code, without deriving your work from the code of
Python itself, then the license of the Python code cannot affect what
you many do with what you wrote – because the copyright on Python does
not affect works not derived from it.

Despite the wishes of copyright maximalists (and the PSF are not
copyright maximalists, to my knowledge), there are still limits to the
scope of copyright.

> If python is under GPL, is the answer different? Thanks a lot!!

Python is not under GPL. But unless you are deriving a work from Python
and distributing the result, that doesn't alter the answer.

-- 
 \     “I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. |
  `\          There's a knob called ‘brightness’ but it doesn't work.” |
_o__)                                             —Eugene P. Gallagher |
Ben Finney

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#28893

On 9/11/2012 12:03 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
> Jayden <jayden.shui@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Python is under GPL compatible. If I develop a python code
>
> If you write new code, without deriving your work from the code of
> Python itself, then the license of the Python code cannot affect what
> you many do with what you wrote – because the copyright on Python does
> not affect works not derived from it.
>
> Despite the wishes of copyright maximalists (and the PSF are not
> copyright maximalists, to my knowledge), there are still limits to the
> scope of copyright.

If by 'copyright maximalists' you mean the authors of translation 
programs that claim copyright to translations, then they are really 
'copyright grabbers' in that they are denying copyright to original 
authors of the codes translated.

The usual basis for the grab is that the translated code must run with a 
runtime component from the translator. The runtime may or may not be 
physically bundled with the translated code, just as Python code can run 
with either a separately installed python or a bundled python, as in 
freeze or py2exe. The PSF explicitly says that distribution of such 
bundles is allowed for CPython as long as one summarized what one is 
doing. (See terms 2 and 3.)

>> If python is under GPL, is the answer different? Thanks a lot!!
>
> Python is not under GPL. But unless you are deriving a work from Python
> and distributing the result, that doesn't alter the answer.

To be really clear, the 'Python license' is the license for the Python 
x.y.z software and documentation distributed by the Python Software 
Foundation. Other implementations have their own copyright and licenses. 
Code is copyrighted and licensed by the author or assignee.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy

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