BSDLinux OS

[Jeremy C. Reed]

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005, Nikolas Britton wrote:

> You have Perl on that list but Perl is not GPL.
>
> "Perl is Open Source software. It's free for you to download and use
> as you wish. Perl's license is called the Artistic license. Read it if
> you aren't sure what you can or can't do. The bottom line is that this
> is a kinder and gentler version of the GNU license -- one that doesn't
> infect your work if you care to borrow from Perl or package up pieces
> of it as part of a commercial product!" -perl.com

man perlartistic

It is not GPL, but confusing and unfree enough. My understanding:

If you modify, you must place your modifications in public domain, or make 
freely available, or give back to perl, or use changes only within your 
own organization.

You may not charge for perl other than reasonable copying fee or for 
professional support. You may not sell a product that includes embedded 
perl unless the complete standard version of perl interpreter is included 
(so no derivative).

Compare with nawk (not to say awk is as usable though): you may modify and 
distribute any way you want and you may charge any price you want for a 
product based on any part of it. (Just don't use the copyright owner's 
name and include the very brief copyright and permission notice in your 
documentation.)

  Jeremy C. Reed

  	  	 	 BSD News, BSD tutorials, BSD links
 	  	 	 http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/