[GRASS-user] Questions about GRASS license and other more restrictive licenses

[Glynn Clements]

rabotin wrote:

> I've got a question concerning the license of GRASS.
> I'm working for a public french research center (INRA : French National 
> Institute for Agricultural Research) ; we have developped a series of 
> scripts in shell and perl languages for GRASS.
> These procedures are made for an informatic platform which is able to 
> download under a license more restrictive than GPL license .
> And these procedures for GRASS will be accessible for download under 
> this license too.
> So my question is : is this kind of license (a license more restrictive 
> than GPL license) compatible with developing shell scripts for GRASS (as 
> GRASS license is GPL license) or not ?

The technically correct but not very useful answer is that it depends
upon what constitutes a derived work in a given jurisdiction. If you
want a more specific answer, you'll need to ask a lawyer.

I'm fairly sure that the scripts by themselves don't constitute a
derived work. Bundling the scripts with GRASS might be, but that isn't
a problem if you license the scripts under the GPL.

Bundling the scripts, GRASS and the aforementioned informatic platform
would be problematic. I don't think that you can claim this as "mere
aggregation" when the components are specifically intended to be used
together.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>