RE: osCommerce Copyright Notice

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=187948#187948
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[quote="cyt0plas"]So, I am required to let php print out your copyright notice.  I understand that.  However, can't I just add my own marks before and after, namely "<!--" and "-->"?[/quote]

[quote="241comp"]cyt0plas brings up a good point - and I believe a valid one.  After reading the GPL, it simply states that the copyright notice must be printed or displayed[/quote]

Please read again. For you convenience I will quote a bit more from the [url="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.txt"]GNU General Public License:[/url]

[quote="GNU General Public License, 2c"]   c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the [b]most ordinary way[/b], to [b]print or display[/b] 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.[/quote]

Now let's go through that. You must "print or display" the copyright notice. osCommerce delivers HTML as a result of a "most ordinary way" of running - by requesting a page that is deliverd by the osCommerce engine. The "most ordinary way" to view HTML is to see it rendered by a browser - I hope we can agree on that. It would be new to me that the "most ordinary way" to view HTML is viewing the source code.

So now that we have agreed on the fact that the "most ordinary way" to get something from the osCommerce engine is by clicking on a link or button on a web page you view in a browser - what would be the "most ordinary way" to "print or display" the copyright, warranty and license clause that GNU-GPL 2c demands? I would say by showing it in the browser. Hiding it in the HTML-source is NOT "printing or displaying". It is hiding.

So when you hide the copyright notice from being displayed you are violating our policy and GPL2c.

Kind regards.