Is this a LEGAL thing to do with scripts ????
 

If you have an open source script (free script)

Are you allowed to take the source and modify it then sell it on as your own script

Is this legal or allowed to be done

Im asking because since buying two scripts me and Si have since found out that both scripts are open source .

If it's open and released under the GPL, you can definitely do exactly what you have asked.

You don't even really have to modify it even. The license allows for that.

i sales wordpress hacks

Doesen't he have to make the source code available to all people who purchased the script though (meaning no Zend optimizer or ioncube loader) ?

Yep they are both realeased under GPL

Im just pissed at buying the scripts then finding out that they are free even though they have been modified, and I did not know if the guy selling the scripts as his own was allowed to do this

Best bet at this point is to out the people so others can just get the scripts free. You might also contact the original Open Source project and notify them sot hey can look into it (may or may not be a violation).

He has taken the Ironcube loader out of one of the scripts as the original free script did have that, but apart from that there is no Zend Optimizer or Ironcube loader in both scripts I purchased

I allready have contacted one of them and they basically said "sorry I paid for the script as it is a free open source script" and they had nothing to do with the site selling the scripts

Honestly. Did the purchase break the bank?? He thought outside the box and you did not. Use the scripts you bought, make money with them and forget it.

Or out him straight away and move on.

No they did not break the bank and I am not going to post the website here until I have heard back from him. I wondered why one of his scripts just disapeared form the site then he changed his paypal address and took of all email correspondences in the member accounts so there was no way to contact him. At first I thought he might be updating his website.....something not right here I only manged to email him through his first paypal email address

And you dont think its wrong to sell modified open source scripts as your own ???

legal? no legal?

on CashInEnvelope DOT COM we are care not really much thank you!

you wanna make chatting's of amsterdam yes?

supercool thankyou

It is allowed if:
1) you have mentioned the original copyright
2) you distribute your modified code along with the source

huh :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I did not understand a word of what you said

i dont think you are allowed to sell open source scripts just like that

And they were absolutely right on that. You can take any GPL code and sell it for money. According to GPL itself this is not a crime.

He does not mention the original copyright anywhere apart from his own

He does distribute his modified code with the original source meaning that the script you buy is his modified code mixed with the original source

Ok thanks for clarifying that I had no idea that you were allowed to do this

I have had a reply back from the owner and they do actually say where the original source comes from.. I did not see or read it when I purchased the script but it is on the website.

What they are doing is 100% legal according to the GPL / GNU.org website

So all is good I believe

This thread is now closed and another way to make money for script guys has been found :)

btw a small modification on a gpl script can be well worth the money .

Think of it as bananas compared to a banana split :)

One of the scripts I am happy with but the other one aint to clever atm.. will have to spend more money on getting it sorted out

wow, that's gotta suck, you work hard on some open source project, you release it for free, then some wise guy comes along and sells it for a profit :1orglaugh

They should change that because it's fucked.

I've never understood why people spend considerable time and effort on coding... and then release it for free. But that's just me, I like to eat, I guess.

The boys over at Wordpress seem to eat pretty good.

Depends on the license.

Essentially, yes. They can sell it for whatever they like.

However, depending on the license they may have to provide source code to anyone who asks, including the modifications they made to any parts of the code.

Other "Free" licenses are much more free, so they could in fact take the software, modify it, then sell it commercially without ever "giving back" the source code modifications.

In a word: Yes, but it depends on the license if they are fully compliant.

once again if you are asking for real legal advice on gfy yer an idiot

theres not one lawyer that responded to this thread

have an attorney read the licensing agreement or terms and conditions under which the software is released I guarantee you it is in there and it is different potentially for every copyright, and gpl software IS copyrighted

You just like to eat, the guy over free Ubuntu likes to fly into cosmos. I believe this is a main difference between you and him. :2 cents:

The one who think that only lawyer could read and understand the General Public License (GPL) is an idiot.

Nothing personal :2 cents:

read the licensing halfwit

Long story short:

If it's GPL, he needs to provide any bits of it which are/were public source, but his own libraries/interfaces can stay private.

BSD or MIT license: It's free for him to do with whatever he damn well pleases.

It was my understanding that if it's GPL, all derivative works need to be GPL'd too. GPL is there to only support free software, not derivatise commercial spin-offs

AFAIK, only the BSD license allows you to encrypt, sell and basically do wtf you want with it, but you still have to acknowledge the source.

Sure you can sell it.

But if you modify it and don't collaborate back you would be standing in front of the line between ethic and legal again.

Just my two cents.

Not entirely.

Anything you develop atop of the GPL code without directly changing that bit, is yours - so just make an assload of functions and hook into it, then release the original code with the hookability.

You can also get by with releasing binary only bits for your proprietary functions if you so choose. It's been done a lot with routers based around the Linux kernel.

lol ... thats some good input right there ..nice post I must say

You get what you pay for..

You probably would, too, on the amount of venture capital they're received. How much venture capital has Joey Geek writing GPL code gotten?

http://i35.tinypic.com/34ox5pj.jpg

I would also say that, if you can't READ and UNDERSTAND the license yourself, then do as Mike South says and have an attorney interpret it for you. Software licenses aren't that hard to read, though. Original poster should just do that, because there's been no consensus in this thread, and a consensus wouldn't guarantee correctness anyway.

Wouldn't being able to raise venture capital prove that free sells?


If we had the traffic they had when they got 30m.. heck everyone would have people throwing money at them like they did. That's why they could raise it, people didn't invest in a broken machine.


Now they are spending that money and making money on stuff like a hosting company and host paid blogs, massive ones. You can buy more space and features for your free blog.

They own plugins for WP that cost monthly (biggest one too). Google adsense is auto on blogs if conditions are met. They upsell hosting and other products. They have a paid poll version. Premium Themes. Shared profits in widgets. Paid support services... and more.




It's a free product... they built up, floated about even for awhile, got some investments, grew the staff, and over the last year have really taken it to the next level.

Now sure about you, but I build my free websites/products, if I can monetize them, I invest more into them, grow them, add staff, and hope they take off. I have had investors before, I look at that as part of doing business.

You are so right there is always a way to monetize a free product

Take a look at the FREE online text and rpg games a lot of them are free to play but look closely at them and they are monetized very well

"Free" will always make money in way or the other

I'm fairly certain GPL states you can modify and redistribute "non-commercially" and as long as all sources are provided...

cliff notes?

Redistributing it commercially is fine too, as long as you still provide the source code and the license.

Aside from what's already been said... for self schooled programmers it's good to have Open Source projects in your resume when applying for jobs etc.

Some educations will even have you contribute to open source projects as part of your education. It's a good way to learn and practice.

There is a lot more reasons to contribute to an open source project depending on the individual. Some people just wants to contribute, WikiPedia is a good example of a community making a big change not just online but offline. Through the WikiPedia foundation a lot of information has been put in to print in order to provide less fortunate countries with proper educational material.

And so on and so forth....

This is the other part of it that seems off.

I always thought people making changes etc. to open source scripts who wanted to distibute it, had to do so for free aswell.

But obviously not...

define sell it as your own

are you talking about packaging it together and selling it ala red hat with linux

or are you talking about removing the attributes from the header pretending as if you coded it.

if the first that perfectly ok

if the second then no open source licience allows that even BSD licience requires author reference.