[dev] Re: Transplanting CK-ERP to the Horde Framework

[Chuck Hagenbuch]

Quoting C K Wu <ckwu at cheerful.com>:

> If the caption subject is off-topic, please redirect me to the
> appropriate list and thank you in advance.

No, this list is fine.

> I am the developer of CK-ERP, which is a 3rd party accounting/ERP/CRM
> add-on that runs on top of phpGroupWare.  Recently, I had a problem with
> the Free Software Foundation (FSF), saying that one of the licensing
> term of CK-ERP being not GPL compliant.  With phpGroupWare being mostly
> GPL licensed, FSF indicated that CK-ERP must be GPL'ed too.  While I
> don't agree with FSF's conclusion, I don't wish to engage in a
> protracted argument with FSF, so I am trying to find a new home for CK-ERP.

Huh. :)

> One of the complication with the whole thing is that CK-ERP is designed
> to communicate with phpGroupWare via API calls and at the same time,
> phpGroupWare's API (phpgwapi) is issued under LGPL, so CK-ERP should be
> well protected against any GPL requirement.  However, one key
> phpGroupWare developers claim that while phpgwapi is under LGPL, some of
> its code actually calls on other GPL module/codes, causing FSF to
> conclude that the LGPL protection is ineffective.  Therefore, while
> Horde Framework 3 fits perfectly as a new platform for CK-ERP to run on,
> I am still a bit hesitant.

With that argument, shouldn't the FSF be saying that the phpgwapi must 
be GPL, also?

> Perhaps, developers here could confirm if the Horde Framework 3 is fully
> LGPL'ed and that the Framework does not in term call up other GPL code.

Well... you can ask it to. Which may be the whole phpgw issue, though 
I'm not sure. The Horde Framework itself is entirely LGPL. Nothing you 
do by loading Horde framework libs touches GPL code. It's 
inter-application communication that gets sticky - for instance, if you 
want to use Horde's calendar app, that's GPL, and you can do api calls 
against it. However, nothing in Horde's default configuration makes 
those calls, so it'd be up to your app. Also, Horde lets you say what 
application provides any given API, so if you wanted to provide an LGPL 
or BSD licensed calendar app for your app to use that could interact 
with the rest of Horde seemlessly, you can just do another 
implementation of the calendar/ API.

That help?

> For a demo of CK-ERP, please refer to http://ck-erp.sourceforge.net
> (English) or http://ck-erp.org (Simplified Chinese).

Is there any information available besides the demo? What *is* the license?

-chuck

-- 
"But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy." - John 
Quincy Adams