[Scribus] License of scripts

[Craig Bradney]

On Thursday 18 January 2007 20:56, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> avox wrote:
> > Thomas R. Koll wrote:
> >> Hi Henning,
> >>
> >> Am 18.01.2007 um 16:41 schrieb Henning Schr?der:
> >>> Hi!
> >>> As far as I understand Scribus is licensed under the GPL.  With the
> >>> Python plugin I can write scripts and extensions which directly call
> >>> the Scribus core and gui. Do these files automatically fall under the
> >>> GPL or can I choose another license?
> >>> Perhaps some clarification is needed.
> >>
> >> Absolutely not. The author of the script has all rights of his
> >> script and this cannot be changed by any relating software
> >> and its license.
> >
> > True. You just loose all rights to use Scribus if you distribute those
> > scripts
> > under a non-GPL licence... ;-)
> >
> > Seriously, I don't know what the exact position of the Scribus team
> > is on this point. Maybe we should clarify that in the future.
> > For myself I wouldn't like it if someone distributed Scribus together
> > with non OSS scripts, but I can (probably have to) live with someone
> > distributing the scripts independently of Scribus.
> > Let's see what the others think.
>
> I would hope that we don't ever come to worrying about this. It's a bit
> like the reaction Linus Torvalds has to suggestions that Linux contains
> proprietary code -- show it to us and we'll remove it and rewrite the
> offending bits. One thing about scripts in general is that there is no
> way to come up with "novel" command lines. The syntax is established as
> part of  the Scripter plugin. There might even be difficulties if
> someone tried to write their own extensions to the plugin -- the hooks
> you have to work with were created as part of Scribus.
> There are some special circumstances -- the scripts bundled with Scribus
> obviously are covered by Scribus's license. Those published on the Wiki
> are by definition bound by the license of the Wiki.

The scripts are GPL, unless stated as otherwise, and I dont think that case 
exists. If published on the wiki, a licence should accompany the script, or 
the wiki licence will be the licence.

If someone writes a script they can licence it how they like, it is after all 
pure python with some Scribus bindings added on.

If someone wants to modify the code of Scripter, then, yes, that would be a 
derivative work and fall under the GPL. It does all come down to the fact 
about distribution. If someone writes an inhouse modification, ie not for 
redistribution, they are not forced to release the code.

If you want to write a bunch of scripts and have a different licence and 
package them together, I dont see a problem with them being a different 
licence to Scribus. They may only work with Scribus, however their existence 
does not modify the existence of Scribus or its code, or the rights to that 
code.

Craig