Re: How to make a non-GPL Org-mode exporter?

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl>]

On 2015-07-27, at 18:54, Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> On Monday, 27 Jul 2015 at 18:01, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>> And what if I explicitly want people to be able to use my code in
>> a proprietary software?  Or if I just want to use the "Unlicense"?  Or
>> if I don't want to use GPL on principle?  (And if I still consider Emacs
>
> You are perfectly able to do all of the above with *your* code.  What
> you cannot do is "unlicense" my code which I may have released under
> GPL.  This is the crux.  I, and others, have not released our codes to
> be used however *you* see fit.  We have released them under GPL which
> was our decision.

Nope.  As stated by someone here (Oleh, I guess), if I (require 'org),
or possibly even just write Elisp, and want to distribute it, it has to
be GPL.

> If your code is not based on mine (or any other code released under
> GPL), then by all means do what you want with it and give whatever
> rights away you wish.  If, however, it is based on GPL, you cannot do
> so.

Also, see my other post to see what I mean by "being based" in this
context.  It boils down to the question "how much of other code (even
rather generic parts) can I take and still consider this *my* code)".
And this is still not clear.

> If you write a new exporter based purely on the documented API for use
> with org, you can distribute that perfectly fine with whatever licence
> you wish, AFAIK.  If you take an existing exporter and modify it for
> your target, then you cannot do other than release with GPL.  Likewise
> for your tutorial: if it refers to org documentation (e.g. link to Worg
> or (info)), that is fine; if it includes org documentation, you are back
> to having to release using GPL.
>
> (I'm not a lawyer -- the above is based on my understanding of the
> intent of those of us using GPL as part of org.)

I'm glad to hear that we (more or less) agree.  I'm less glad that quite
probably we are mistaken.

> I'm off to make dinner now... :-)
>
> cheers,
> eric

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University