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By John T. Haller on
There may be an issue with the FancyZoom module listed on Drupal.org. Although the module can be downloaded and states that it is licensed under the GPL, the module page states that "Although free for non-commercial use, Cabel Sasser requests a one-time license fee for use on commercial websites. Please visit the FancyZoom web site for more details." The keyword being 'requests'.
When installed, the FancyZoom module has an announcement at the top of the configuration page in red letters that says ">>For commercial sites please visit www.fancyzoom.com to purchase a license.<<" This would make it seem that a license is required.
On the FancyZoom website, it states that "FancyZoom is totally free for your non-commercial website. In a bit of an experiment: if your website is commercial (i.e. makes you money), you can license FancyZoom for $39 per site, a one-time fee. Instantly add nice image zooming to your site. Click here to instantly and securely buy a license." Which also appears to say that a license is required.
So, the question is, which is it? Is it required or requested? If it is required, does this go against the spirit of the drupal.org website where all contributed code is licensed under the GPL. As only source code is being distributed (no compiled code) and we're not being charged a fee for said distribution, it seems that slapping a commercial fee on top of it violates the spirit if not the letter of the GPL (if it is indeed required).
In the end, this could just be a wording issue and changed to read that "a donation of X is suggested but not required for commercial sites". I don't know of any other modules that have this exact setup.
Thoughts?
Comments
I believe that the issue is
I believe that the issue is the wording, yet again, who knows what the intent of the developer is... Have you asked them?
I think that it forcing you to pay to remove text, then it is against the GPL... therefore the wording should state that it is in a sense a trial... which is against the spirit of Drupal.
-PK-
Good Point
I just dropped the author an email. I didn't see his contact link before anywhere. Hopefully we can get this cleared up.
Not GPL or Compatible
I have heard back from the author and FancyZoom is not released under the GPL or similarly compatible open source license. The source is available, but a licensing fee is required for commercial use (read: the website makes money from ads or what-have-you).
As such, I think it needs to be removed from Drupal.org. FancyZoom has no bug tracker, but I contacted the module owner directly, and he's going to make the module so that it doesn't come with the FancyZoom files themselves and indicate on the page that they are needed and under a non-commercial freeware-ish license with a commercial option available. Thus the module will be GPL and the problem is solved, I believe.