Clarification of GPL Licence

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pramod

We are a small software company in Chennai, India. We want to resell Alfresco services under our own name. Right now we include the statement
"This software uses the Alfresco Content management System" in our modified software in the footer. We also provide the source code free to the users if they need it. We are eventually planning to go into bigger installations , so we want to be sure we are doing everything legally.

We have read the following GPL clause …

"For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software."

Are we legal ?

regards,

mjasay

We are a small software company in Chennai, India. We want to resell Alfresco services under our own name. Right now we include the statement
"This software uses the Alfresco Content management System" in our modified software in the footer. We also provide the source code free to the users if they need it. We are eventually planning to go into bigger installations , so we want to be sure we are doing everything legally….

Are we legal ?

The best answer to your question is the text of the GPL itself: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.  See, in particular, Section 2. 

Alfresco chose to license its software under the GPL.  Therefore, to the extent that you modify the Alfresco software and distribute such modifications, you need to license your derivative works under the GPL, and otherwise abide by the terms of the GPL. 

This means that you can't take Alfresco's code and make it proprietary, for example, but this doesn't prohibit you from selling the services around the software under your name, provided you follow the requirements of copyright attribution as defined in the GPL.  In fact, that's one of the reasons we chose to license our software under the GPL:  to encourage a community around the project that is independent of Alfresco, the company.