[Koha-devel] For immediate release: Koha Open Source Community Regrets Failure of PTFS, Inc. to Comply with Community Guidelines

[Rick Welykochy]

paul POULAIN wrote:

> "PTFS has yet to participate in the community or submit a single piece 
> of code or patch to the Project. They have not contributed to or 
> supported the project at all," said Chris Cormack, original author of 
> the Koha version 1.0, and current Translation Manager for the Project.

If it is found that PTFS makes any changes to the source code and distributes
those changes to their customers, then under the GPL they are bound to
make those changes available to the public.

If it is found that PTFS does not make such changes available, their licence
to use Koha can be immediately suspended and further action taken if
they do not comply.

This kind of thing has happened many times in the past with GPL software
and the GPL software copyright holder has always prevailed, most often
without any need for legal action being taken.

Reference: <http://gpl-violations.org/>

IANAL, but it would appear that issues relating to logo and name hijacking
are more complex to deal with, since we are getting into the area of trademarks.
Has the Koha project registered a trademark?


cheers
rickw


-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

"There are no significant bugs in our released software that any
  significant number of users want fixed. "
      -- Bill Gates  (1995)