[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #16517: What about / Whom to ask for full/missing wordpress source-code?

WordPress Trac wp-trac at lists.automattic.com
Thu Feb 17 14:42:13 UTC 2011


#16517: What about / Whom to ask for full/missing wordpress source-code?
--------------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  hakre               |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)        |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal              |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  WordPress.org site  |     Version:
 Severity:  normal              |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |
--------------------------------+------------------------------

Comment (by Otto42):

 Replying to [comment:11 chipbennett]:
 > I think you're misreading that clause.

 No, I'm not. Really.

 > The binary in question is not being distributed by WordPress ''as a
 separate work'', but rather as a component of the whole package.

 True, but only the whole package is what is being licensed. The license
 cannot apply to SWFUpload when you pull it out and consider it separately.

 And that was sort of my point. WordPress, the package, is GPL licensed.
 SWFUpload is not, even when you get it by taking it out of WordPress, the
 package.

 > Thus, we must consider the next clause:
 >
 >   But '''when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which
 is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on
 the terms of this License''', whose '''permissions for other licensees
 extend''' to the entire whole, and thus '''to each and every part'''
 regardless of who wrote it.
 >
 > That's pretty clear: GPL ''permissions for other licensees extend... to
 each and every part [of the whole]''.

 To each and every part [of the whole], yes, but only when they are in the
 whole.

 This is very important: you cannot, ever, under any circumstances
 whatsoever, relicense something that you do not own. It makes absolutely
 no difference what any license text says, you cannot put a different
 license on somebody else's work. A license is a statement that grants
 rights to other people. If you don't have the copyright, then you cannot
 grant rights to others.

 If I take the WordPress package and pull SWFUpload out of it, then that
 specific piece is not GPL licensed. It's only the work as a whole that is
 GPL, and all the parts of it which WordPress owns the copyrights to that
 it can grant rights under the GPL for.

 And that's what that phrase really means. If I take a bunch of files I
 created and say "this package is GPL", then all the parts in it are GPL'd
 individually as well... If I have the copyright and thus the power to
 grant rights to other people. But I can't grant conditional rights to code
 that I don't own.

 > So where is this "designated place" from which WordPress offers for
 licensees to download source files for the binary in question?

 From swfupload.js:
 /**
  * SWFUpload: http://www.swfupload.org, http://swfupload.googlecode.com
  *
  * mmSWFUpload 1.0: Flash upload dialog -
 http://profandesign.se/swfupload/,  http://www.vinterwebb.se/
  *
  * SWFUpload is (c) 2006-2007 Lars Huring, Olov Nilzén and Mammon Media
 and is released under the MIT License:
  * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
  *
  * SWFUpload 2 is (c) 2007-2008 Jake Roberts and is released under the MIT
 License:
  * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
  *
  */

 From both of those two URLs at the beginning: http://www.swfupload.org,
 http://swfupload.googlecode.com you can find several "Download" links.
 Downloading would give you the source code. 15 seconds of investigation
 would give you that.

 > Okay, so the link provided goes to the SWFUpload project website, which
 itself links to a googlecode repository for the code itself. Is the
 swfupload.swf source file
 [http://code.google.com/p/swfupload/source/browse/swfupload/trunk/core/Flash
 somewhere in here]?

 The main download page is right here:
 http://code.google.com/p/swfupload/downloads/list

 The "core" package contains the SWF file and the source you need to build
 it.

 > I will 100% agree that WordPress is in the clear, ''if someone can point
 out where the swfupload.swf source file is made available''. I assume
 that, if it's available,
 [http://code.google.com/p/swfupload/source/browse/swfupload/trunk/core/Flash
 it's here somewhere]?
 >
 > Which, really, would put a quick end to this ticket.

 *headdesk*

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16517#comment:12>
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