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http://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1536
Summary: GPL does not cover modifications that aren't
"distributed"
Product: Exim
Version: N/A
Platform: All
OS/Version: All
Status: NEW
Severity: bug
Priority: high
Component: Unfiled
AssignedTo: nigel@???
ReportedBy: mystica@???
CC: exim-dev@???
Case in point: Spamexperts.
They have modified your code to accept binary compiled configurations, yet
somehow as they claim to not distribute their code they seem to skirt the GPL
and its mandate that modifications are contributed back to the community.
In reality, this obfuscation only serves to make my job harder, as I cannot
effectively administer the Exim services that one particular customer of ours
has shoved into our face as they subscribe to the spamexperts filtering
service.
I would love to be able to understand how the software is being told to work
via its configuration files - but i cannot, because the GPL only covers
"Distribution". Spamexperts use of the sofware somehow is not quite
distribution, and appears to be a successful-to-date attack on the copyleft in
the GPL.
If you change to the Affero GPL then Spamexperts would have to do one of the
following:
Contribute their modifications to the greater Exim codebase;
Stop using obfuscated configurations;
Be in license violation, which has been successfully fought in European courts.
Please consider the change to Affero GPL to prevent this abuse of your free
software in a commercial product that I cannot examine to determine causes of
failure.
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