I think, in view of the difficulty in contacting everyone in the Authors
file we need to go as close to the straight GPL line as possible. With this
in mind then:
The first choice is to GPL Analyser.
The second choice is to rebuild the ethereal dll as a stand-alone
executable.
I would agree to either of these propositions.
The first addresses how they broke the GPL and terminated their rights. The
second is one way they could have worked around the GPL.
ClearSight has now lost their rights under the GPL, and only we can resurect
those rights. I think that any agreement should demonstrate that ClearSight
were in the wrong and have been hurt. Damages would be one way to do this,
paid to a charity or OSS organisation.
I think it is important to give ClearSight a way out of this mess that they
will not view as demolishing their profit base. We do not want to go to
court if Ethereal can be defended adiquately without. If I understand
correctly, both above options are perfectly acceptable under the GPL.
Therefore if we forced option 1 on them now, there is nothing to stop them
going to option 2 in the future. (Unless we forced them not to, we can make
them agree to anything before we allow them back under under the GPL.)
My suggestion would be to give them the option:
1. GPL Analyser - and undertake not to use Ethereal with any commercial app.
2. Rewrite DLL as a stand-alone app, add clear GPL notices in Analyser and
its documentation, and pay damages to charity or an OSS org. Such damages
being judged to be below the cost of a court case, but not much below.
In both cases all GPL code to be subject to our acceptance, in that it must
be adiquately complete and documented.
--
Richard Urwin, Private
"No 9000 series computer has ever made a mitsake or corrubiteddatatato."
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________
