GNU and Commercially Developed Add-On...?

equilla <[email protected]> 13 Aug 2003 01:00:48 -0000
Newsgroups gmane.comp.web.oscommerce.gpl
Message-ID <9d6e32dee20f7c45aef22f2dcf54cf4f@osCommerce-Forums>
This message was sent from: GNU General Public License
http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=212637#212637
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, 

having seen the rather lengthy discussions on the possibilities of developing an interface between osCommerce and ebay, I have been toying with the idea of buying into the ebay developer programme in order to produce such an interface.

Since there are considerable costs involved, this would have be done on a commercial footing, with the bolt-on being made available for download for a reasonable fee - the idea being basically to recover development costs.

The question is - would I have to release the software under the GPL? (my guess is yes, given that it would include modified osC files).

If so, given the rights that purchasers obtain under the GPL this makes the whole thing commercially unworkable.

Or am I missing something here?

TIA for any thoughts on this - as you can probably tell, I'm more of a programmer than a lawyer!

Regards, 



Mark