In this case, the modified punbb need to retain it's GPL licence in the code, but could the creator of the modification never release the code to the public and simply use it?

I'm considering using punBB for a website I've gots tah makes work all nice and perty. Punbb would be great base code to start from.

I'll be placing a link somewhere appropriate to PunBB, and hopefully many of my mods can be added to "vanilla" punbb, so released publically. I'm not looking to be a total jerk here Just want to know how jerky I'm legally entitled to be

Q: May I remove the copyright from the source code?

No. The copyright notice in all the source files must be left intact. Any modification or removal of this copyright is illegal under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence.

ty

Edit:
http://punbb.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2165

I think bekko meant the copyright at the top of every PunBB file, which must be kept intact (along with the GPL notice)

But yeah, very cool

right.. but

can be removed/modified? correct?

But yeah, very cool

No, you can leave that off, PunBB 1.3 doesn't have it at all. Actually it was something I always removed from any PunBB install, cause it was confusing and also it could get Rickard in trouble if the software is used for something less desirable, like a porn site.

kewlness... ty all for the info

mmmm Cracker Barrel

we will definitely need to get together.

does it still need to read?
Copyright (C) 2002-2005  Rickard Andersson (rickard@punbb.org)

No, you can leave that off, PunBB 1.3 doesn't have it at all. Actually it was something I always removed from any PunBB install, cause it was confusing and also it could get Rickard in trouble if the software is used for something less desirable, like a porn site.

Hey, I'm just up the road from you, I'm in Charlotte. Glad to hear this isn't a joke, so definitely let's do lunch, Cracker Barrel?

The copyright notice in your files is indeed still required.
In essence you'd be forking PunBB.

Interesting project btw

gotcha

does it still need to read?

or can i include myself?

or

i want to make sure to appropriately/legally give credit where credit is due.

and ty.. im pleased with how easily this has come together

Interesting project btw

what i put together needs a bit of work (specifically my stub file -- index.php) before its shown to anyone, but the punbb team provided an excellent base for doing all of this.

You just blew the Russians out of the water!

Seriously, if this isn't a joke, I'm very interested - let's do lunch

mods include:
- moving all code out of the web root -- using mod_rewrite to push all requests (except images and css) through index.php (completely unrelated to index.php in a stock punbb release)
- elimination of all get variables -- clean urls all around
-- (/viewforum.php?id=1 => /view-forum/id/1 or /[forum-name])
-- (/viewtopic.php?id=23&p=3 => /view-topic/id/23/p/3 or /[forum-name]/[topic-title]/p/3)
-- (/profile.php?id=1&section=essentials => /profile/id/1/section/essentials)
-- also keeps track of thread title changes -- old urls containing the old thread title will still load the correct thread
- eliminated cross-db-compatible switches (im only going to be using mysql)
- converted source to an OO structure (php5) (for instance profile.php was split into 17 objects (2 are abstracts, 1 per section and 1 per action), moderate.php was split into 7 (again, 1 per action) and so on) -- on avg it eliminates 1/2-1/3 of the code that gets parsed per request
- developed a simple template engine so that my designers arent tempted to screw up any php when editing html -- no html in any of the objects
- single code base for running multiple forums (separate dbs) -- forum and options are loaded based on the base url -- allows for different admins, mods, groups, etc per forum, but same users
- using a shared session instead of cookies to keep track of logged in users. this allows me to provide a single sign on to all of the forums.
- login based on email address -- allows users to have multiple usernames -- currently only admin can hand out additional usernames
- added a registry (similar to Zend Framework) for holding reused objects

Id love to show this off, but I just finished implementing the template engine, and it needs some more testing. Plus, my home connection doesnt have enough bandwidth to handle tons of requests. I would also like to resolve my concerns about copyright/license before I expose this to people outside of my dev team. FYI, for now I am planning to keep the link and the copyright notice at the bottom of the page, just slightly modified, so that I am still supporting punbb, because what I started with is well written and was easily modified.