Hi Everyone,

We're in the process of releasing an Affiliation Engine CMS-like script that we will be licensing with PHPAudit and encrypting with Ioncube. Currently we're using MrRat's open-source/GPL'd Amazon Product Feed script, and to my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong), we cannot encrypt this and include it in our engine packaged into a commercial script because that would violate GPL. Is that correct? Therefore the solution is, encrypt all the code we write, but leave MrRats CGI script unencrypted, as is.. I think I understand that.

With that, I'm looking for a way (something short of writing my own XML Parser to parse Amazons XML feed from their API) to do exactly what these other scripts are doing, but be able to include it in our script. I've tried contacting their authors and requesting to purchase a developer's license but had no luck. I know ThinkBling.com has a nice php script like MrRats, but they don't reply to emails.

I found this.. http://phpclasses.elib.com/browse/package/642.html It's a script for Amazon API through PHP and XML. Check it out.. and notice on that page it says "License : The PHP License". That's not GPL ( I don't think ).. So is this code "free" for me to use, put in our script, and then encrypt it and call it our own? I really don't understand this part of it and it's all very confusing to me.

I would very much appreciate any help from any very generous person who feels like stepping up to the plate to help me fully understand this stuff. I just want a solution where we have an amazon product feed in php that we can encrypt and box up in our commercial script and call it our own. I guess I'm asking if we can do that with the code above from phpclasses.elib.com -- if so, under what conditions, etc.

Please help... Thank you!

Rich

http://www.php.net/license/3_01.txt

The PHP License looks pretty open from what I see there.

Thanks Stephen, yes it looks pretty open... then, I downloaded the amazon.zip file that came with the script, and it says..


License:

This software is copyrighted by the author, Calin Uioreanu (hereafter, Author) , php9.com 2001-2003. By software we mean the package that comes with this license. You (hereafter, Licensee) are not allowed to use this software in a production environment, for commercial purposes except if the software comes attached to a written approval of the author. Any usage of this software must be made with previous author notification and written approval. Any usage that does not comply to the written agreement is prohibited and represents criminal activity. You are strictly forbidden to sell or re-sell the package as a whole or parts of it. The copyright covers the software contained in this package, splitted into modules as standalone software and also as complete package, and also the techniques used, the coding patterns contained. Everything that includes this package was created personally by the author, and you are strictly forbidden to ignore the intellectual property of this product.

You may download the software and install it for a testing and evaluation period that is at the sole discretion of the Author. Therefore this license can cease anytime. Beginning on the first day after installation of the Software, Licensee is required to acquire a license for future usage of the Software. A licence can be acquired by payment of a licence fee or by obtaining a written agreement with the author. Students or PHP learning classes may apply for an royalty-free licence for educational usage. Licenses are distributed by the Author. Please send an email to calin@php9.com for details.

By using or copying this Software, Licensee agrees to abide by the copyright law and all other applicable laws of Germany, USA and also international copyright laws including, but not limited to, export control laws, and the terms of this licence. The Author shall have the right to terminate this licence immediately by written notice upon Licensee's breach of, or non-compliance with, any of its terms. Licensee may be held legally responsible for any copyright infringement that is caused or encouraged by Licensee's failure to abide by the terms of this licence. You are given this license on a temporary basis, this implies that this license can cease to be valid anytime at the sole discretion of the author. Please contact the author periodically to ensure that you are legally allowed to use this software.

Licensee is not allowed to distribute the binary and source code (if released) to third parties. Licensee is not allowed to reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile code, or make any modifications of the binary or source code, remove or alter any trademark, logo, copyright or other proprietary notices, legends, symbols, or labels in the Software. Therefore if you are using this code, you agree to leave the footer copyright issue untouched.

Licensee is not allowed to sub-license the Software or any derivative work based on or derived from the Software.

-----------------------

Disclaimer:

The Licensee acknowledges and agrees that the software is delivered 'as is' without warranty and without any support services (unless agreed otherwise with the Author). the Author make no warranties, either expressed or implied, as to the software and its derivatives. This code is provided 'as is', without any guarantee that it works. You are solely responsible for using this code and any implications it may have over your environment. The Author cannot be made responsible for any possible damage caused by using this software.

As the code uses a live XML feed over Amazon.com, the Author will not be made responsible if eventual original server downtimes bring down your site or site's search. You should carefully investigate caching procedures that allow you to outcome eventual data source downtimes.

Thank you for reading this and using this package!

Calin Uioreanu
04.10.2002 München
Germany


SO.. Unless I can get a developer's license to this script.. it won't serve the purpose I had intended it for. Hm.

Moved to Programming Discussions :)

Hi Rich,

You'll ideally be looking for something licensed under the LGPL (Lesser-GPL, allows for usage in commercial product, but source must still be provided) or BSD license. I'm sure there are others that would let you do what you want, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

In terms of using GPL products, you can't include it and call it your own – anything (under any license) will still need to be credited. One thing you could do is sell your script on the basis the user needs to get their own parser. With this, you could then offer them the separate option to download and install a GPL Amazon parser. In your script, provide the relevant files to connect one or more freely available GPL parsers. This way, you are simply distributing your product (licensed & encoded), one or several GPL parser(s) (in source form, separate download), and the files to make the two work together. It's not ideal, but from what I know (Standard I am not a lawyer disclaimer) you should be fine even though it’s not really all that ethical.

I hope something in there is of use to you :)

Alasdair,

Thank you very much. I figured we'd just not encrypt Mr.Rats script (Amazon Product Feed cgi) and include it in our script in source form with all copyrights, and the GPL license, etc.

In any event.. I think we'll just have someone write one. It'd be worth the investment rather than dealing with legal mumbo jumbo down the line..

So is this code "free" for me to use, put in our script, and then encrypt it and call it our own?
The PHP License is a derivative of the BSD License (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php), so you can use it, put it in your script and encrypt it (upon which it should be regarded as being in binary form, methinks). Since the author doesnt charge a fee for it, it is available to you at zero price. However, you cannot call it your own, since you need to "reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution". The list of conditions is the license itself, while the disclaimer is right at the end.

Note that I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice/opinion.

The sure-fire way to avoid any of these licensing questions is to develop the functionality yourself. Parsing XML feeds into arrays is (imho) not that difficult that you need to get another script to do it.

I am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that:

1. If you use GPL software, you must provide that software in its original, unencrypted form (including all licensing and copyright notices). You cannot encrypt it and re-license it as your own.

2. If you use it in conjunction with your own commercial script, you must release the part of the code that uses the GPL'd software (I believe its called "derived works") as GPL, and provide source code thereof (if you decide to make it open source).

I would really suggest that you talk to a licensing attorney.

http://www.php.net/license/3_01.txt

The PHP License looks pretty open from what I see there.

It is important to note that the PHP license only applies to the source code to the PHP language itself, not something created with PHP. An application written in PHP is usually released under a different license such as the LGPL or a commercial license.

Thanks everyone. I had someone write something for us that works fine and it saved me a whole lot of aggrivation, I'm sure.

If you have done that Richard, make sure its enforcable. A licensing agreement will be thrown out of court if its deemed unenforceable.