[wp-hackers] GPL licensing.

[Carthik Sharma]

Hi Folks,

I have been thinking about this for quite sometime, and have posted
email reagrding this at my local LUG and at gnu.misc.discuss but I
can't find a good answer.My intention is not to question anything or
anyone but to disambiguate things and bring what is probably a known
'problem' to light, for the the selfish purpose of understanding how
things work in the open source world. Hope this is useful to the
community-at-large too.

The GPL license (you have a copy in your wordpress bundle) says 

<b>The precise terms</b> and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow. :

And it goes on to say:
 How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
    ... To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is
safest to attach them to the start of <b>each source file</b> to most
effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should
have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full
notice is found.

Here I stop quoting.

the question is :

If a software "product" which consists of 'n' different source files
is distributed as bundle with a copy of the GNU General Public License
document (license.txt), but none of the 'n' (or maybe 'm' out of the
'n') source files in the product contain any kind of copyright
statement , or reference to the GPL, are the files under GPL? Is the
product considered to be released under GPL? What part of it is
GPL'ed, since none of the source file have any copyright statements
(GPL statements)?

Maybe to best avoid issues later, it might be wise to add a few lines
(header) to each source file in the wordpress bundle. I have not got a
definite answer from any mailing list/group/person I contacted as to
whether such a bundle (such as wordpress) is really GPL, since it does
not seem to have the headers in the source files. According to the GPL
faq, there is a requirement I quote below, which is required to
release a product under GPL :

"Whichever license you plan to use, the process involves adding two
elements to each source file of your program: a copyright notice (such
as "Copyright 1999 Linda Jones"), and a statement of copying
permission, saying that the program is distributed under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (or the Lesser GPL)."

Wordpress does not satisfy this requirement.
All this leaves me a little confused, and I know talking about the GPL
is not the easiest way to make friends ;) , but I hope I get an answer
to my questions. I apologize in advance if this is not the right forum
to discuss this.

Carthik.

-- 
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone -- 老子 Lǎozi

University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net