GPL license and the generated JavaScript?

[Peter Hultqvist]

Ever since sharpkit was released open source it basically appeared as being free.

As far as I know GPL compilers can be used to compile non GPL software. Does the same apply for sharpkit and the generated JavaScript, including and helper snippets?

The only case where the GPL applies and the commercial license makes sense, other than supporting the development for making an awesome tool, is if you're developing a program that converts c# code to JavaScript.

I'm more interested in the official stand rather than a legal discussion.

[Dan-el Khen]

Hi Peter,

Regarding SharpKit's program output - this is a tricky subject, on one hand you're very much correct that the output of a GPL program is *not* GPL, On the other hand, you're developing source code that relies on SharpKit source code (references, code injected by sharpkit, etc...), which makes it derivative work, which then every app is more like an extension / plugin for sharpkit, which should be under GPL. 

But this is less related to the general idea. The general idea behind using GPL was to be able to make SharpKit open source and allowing users to contribute fixes and report bugs, while still requiring a license for commercial closed-source apps, which helps in sustaining the project.

Many times I've thought about making it fully free and open-source under a permissive license, but was worried about not being able to sustain it, also, there weren't many discussions on the subject here. Some companies actually prefer paying for a commercial license rather than having to 'be on their own' with an open source dependency.

Hope this helps somehow, feel free to keep this discussion going... :-)

Cheers

D.

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[Peter Hultqvist]

Hi Dan-el,

The question I'm concerned with right now is: Can non-GPL javascript code be generated using the Open Source Edition.

To put it slightly different, do you, original authors, want it to be possible to generate non-GPL javascript using the Open Source Edition of the tool?

At this stage I believe it is not a matter of interpreting the license but rather to make a choice and pick licenses thereafter.

If the answer is YES, then that statement on its own is enough for me. You might then consider putting a permissive license on the specific helper javascript files that can be embedded into the project.

If the answer is NO, it would be appreciated if it were clarified on the license page.

http://sharpkit.net/Licensing.aspx

The licensing page could be clarified since "for open source project" kind of implies NO and "free under GPL" kind of implies YES. Especially for someone that does not know the internals of how sharpkit works.

Can the commercial versions be used to make non-GPL software that generates javascript from c# code? Usually that is not the case with commercial tools like this.

Another aspect is copyright assignment, I might have missed it if you already have a process for it. If you accept contributions to a GPL software those contributions would naturally be GPL too, but then the whole software is GPL even for you original authors and you would no longer be able to release commercial versions of the same tool under a different license. As I understand it copyright assignments solves that by any contributor assigning the copyright to you so you are free to re-license the whole package under any other license.

[Dan-el Khen]

Huh, I didn't know that, perhaps SK needs a different license to be more easily combined with a commercial license. At the time I think it was Sencha that used this GPL/Commercial licensing model and that seemed to make sense. Do you have any ideas / alternative for this? I'd be happy to hear those if you have them.

D.

[Peter Hultqvist]

The choice of GPL/commercial model is as good as any.  The copyright assignment, copyright in general, goes above/before licensing.

[Dan-el Khen]

So I guess the current answer is no. But I would be happy to discuss if this can be improved.

D.