#2058 closed defect (invalid)
GPL incompatibility: missing installation sources for Windows
| Reported by: | Zeus Gómez Marmolejo | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component: | installer | Version: | VirtualBox 2.0.0 |
| Keywords: | msi | Cc: | |
| Guest type: | other | Host type: | Windows |
Description
From the GPL version 2 license, paragraph 16:
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable.
Clearly, the source code of VirtualBox lacks the scripts used to control the installation of the executable for Windows. Installing the opensource (OSE) version in Windows it's simply impossible. The only possibility is to install the closed source edition with the provided .msi executable, thus violating the GPL license.
The solution for this problem should be shipping the installation scripts and project files to build the .msi package in Windows for the Open Source Edition.
Change History (3)
comment:1 by , 16 years ago
| Resolution: | → invalid |
|---|---|
| Status: | new → closed |
comment:2 by , 16 years ago
I copy my answer from the forum:
This is not a mistake.
Sun can choose not to ship the MSI package sources for building the installer. This is OK.
But it has to ship some scripts or executables for installing the Open Source Edition, they may choose a different way, not .MSI but they must provide a way to install the software. Otherwise Sun is violating the GPL version 2, paragraph 16:
For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable.
If you thing Sun is acting right then my question is: where are these scripts used to control the installation of the executables?
There are no missing sources. We are not shipping the OSE as a Windows MSI file; we only ship the OSE in source.
The MSI file you are referring to is the full binary edition, which contains additional code compared to the OSE. See http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions for a list of the differences. This additional code is not GPL-licensed.
There is no third-party GPL code in VirtualBox that would require us to ship the sources of the non-OSE parts. Sun owns the GPL code in VirtualBox, Sun is therefore free to ship it under a different license as well. This is called "dual licensing".
I hope this clears up the confusion.