drupal lisences with PHP extensions

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plazma's picture

Hi All,
I know there have been people trying to find loopholes in the lisencing in order to distribute their software without having to give away code, i guess there are some people who need this functionality for genuine needs.

If i was to write a php extension that returns a string to say a hook in the drupal system, would i then be required to distribute the source code to that extension, or would that extension fall under the lisencing of PHP.

PHP is the framework in which drupal communictes with, i would be thinking that because i am extending PHP functionality, there is an intermediatary step between my drupal code and my php extension.

Cheers

Comments

Drupal-independent

Crell's picture

IANAL and so forth.

If the PHP extension you write is not Drupal-dependent, then AFAIK you're only then bound by the PHP license. Vis, a PECL library like APC, or SOAP, etc. can be called from Drupal but there's nothing Drupal-dependent about it. That it's called from inside a hook rather than some other function is irrelevant.

Now, if you're talking about an extension whose only purpose was to process Drupal-specific data structures, like FAPI, then it would be... messy is really my only answer there. :-) The GPL could well apply there if someone challenged you on it.

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