Copyright Notice Requirement.

This message was sent from: GNU General Public License
http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=182312#182312
----------------------------------------------------------------

I've been looking at the "requirement" that the admin panel carry the copyright notice, and it looks like it's not actually allowed under the GPL.  Here's what I see:
[quote]
1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.
[/quote]
Ok, that only kicks in if I distribute it.  That makes sense.
[quote]
2c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
[/quote]
There are several problems with this one.
1) PHP Scripts are _not_ interactive, unless ran from the command line.  They do not "interact", nor can they possibly be construed to do so.  _Any_ program that simply runs, and outputs (without allowing any input in the process) is by it's very nature non-interactive.  It simply starts, outputs, quits.
2) The license states "an appropriate copyright notice [b]and[/b] a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) [b]and[/b] that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, [b]and[/b] telling the user how to view a copy of this License."  Even _if_ the program were somehow considered interactive, _you_ fail to include that statement, so we fall under the exception.
3) PHP scripts don't _display_ anything at all - they output (command line excluded).  So, if you simply preface the copyright with <!-- and after it put -->, it's still being output.  HTML has no form until it's rendered.  The decision to not display it is done by the browser.

I suspect some moderator won't like this and delete it, but It would be nice to hear an explanation as to why the requirement fits in.  I don't distribute it, so it doesn't affect me, but as an open-source PHP developer myself, I have yet to find a suitable answer to those questions, so I don't make any such claims.