Topic: question about heavily modified source

Over the past two weeks I have been working on making several modifications to the punbb source. I decided to start with punbb because its very lightweight and very minimalistic, but I knew that my modifications would seriously alter the punbb source/structure (yes I realize that I wont be able to easily upgrade -- but I also dont really need many of the features in 1.3). Id like to know if I still need to include the copyright notices in my files and how to decide on where they need to be placed. I havent decided if I will release this to the public. The answers I receive will help better decide that. Obviously, I dont want to break any laws, but considering my mods below, Im not sure how to tackle it. The meat of what I have is still very similar, but the app structure and request handling have dramatically changed. It works similarly, but it has evolved into a very different beast.

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.

2

Re: question about heavily modified source

eramus,

You just blew the Russians out of the water!

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

3 (edited by eramus 2007-12-11 22:03)

Re: question about heavily modified source

not a joke at all, but like i said id like to keep exposure to minimum until i find out what i need to do keep everything kosher. the last thing i want to do is step on anyones toes or get myself in trouble.

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. smile

Re: question about heavily modified source

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

Interesting project btw wink

Re: question about heavily modified source

elbekko wrote:

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

Interesting project btw wink

gotcha

does it still need to read?

Copyright (C) 2002-2005  Rickard Andersson (rickard@punbb.org)

or can i include myself?

Copyright (C) 2002-2005  Rickard Andersson (rickard@punbb.org)
Copyright (C) 2007  My Name (my@email.com)

or

Copyright (C) 2007  My Name (my@email.com)

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 smile

6

Re: question about heavily modified source

eramus wrote:

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?

Re: question about heavily modified source

hcgtv wrote:

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

hcgtv wrote:

Cracker Barrel?

mmmm Cracker Barrel smile

we will definitely need to get together.

Re: question about heavily modified source

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 smile

Re: question about heavily modified source

Smartys wrote:

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 smile

right.. but

Copyright (C) 2002-2005  Rickard Andersson (rickard@punbb.org)

can be removed/modified? correct?

Re: question about heavily modified source

No. To the best of my knowledge, all the stuff in that comment has to be retained. You can add your own stuff there, but what's there must stay there.

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

Rickard wrote:

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.

11

Re: question about heavily modified source

Smartys wrote:

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

Re: question about heavily modified source

Sorry for reviving an old post, but my searches only reviled this topic as the closest to my inquiry smile

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 tongue Just want to know how jerky I'm legally entitled to be roll

echo "deadram"; echo; fortune;