Hi Marc,
Thanks for pointing this out. Tell me if I’m wrong, but strictly speaking:
- The PAR license is “the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself”, which isn’t strictly GPL but rather “either GPL or the Artistic License”.
- I’m using pp, not PAR, and the licence for pp says “Neither this program nor the associated parl program impose any licensing restrictions on files generated by their execution”.
- Yes, pp uses PAR, but a number of other modules as well. Perhaps I should check the licensing terms of all the packages called by pp, directly or indirectly. Ouch!
My usage is not commercial, so I should be good. I want to use pp to give my own Perl programs to friends who don’t have Perl installed. I have no intention of wide distribution, and certainly not of commercial use.
I’ve written or contributed to open-source software myself, and I want to respect the work of others (commercial or not). Given that it’s the second time someone from ActiveState reminds me of the PAR license and possible commercial limitations, I need to ask: how is the PAR (or pp) license or usage different from that of Perl itself or of most of the Perl modules?
Thanks!
-Martin