revjim.net

I'm going to be releasing some software to the public in the next week or so and am in need of a license to release it under.

The GPL is close, but not exactly what I am looking for. I wish for the software to be Open Source. The software will actually be a set of libraries for PHP. I want anyone to be able to use the libraries on their own pages for their own use. If the software is modified and distributed, I would like to be notified and those changes should also be required to be freely distributable as these libraries are. All of this fits along with the GPL. However, the GPL is very loose when it comes to what can be done with the libraries over the web. Under the GPL, it is legal is install the libraries I have written, use them anyway the developer sees fit, and charge money for those services, as long as the code is not distributed. And, since the code is sitting on servers owned by the developer and not being SOLD to users, it does not violate the GPL. I wish to forbid this from occurring as well. If the developer of this new application modifies my libraries and allows that code to executed over the network while still running on his/her servers, and therefore not distributed, I wish to require those changes to also be covered under a free and open license. This does not forbid the developer from making a profit on the execution of that code on his/her server, but merely requires him/her to transmit those changes and/or modifications to the public and release them under an equivalent license. If the libraries themselves are not modified in anyway, then the source code has not been altered. This means that a developer is free to LINK the libraries (without any changes) into his/her own code, without distributing those changes. However, since the code will be offered as a class in PHP, that class can simply be extended by the developer, leaving the original code intact. This is okay. However, if that developer wishes to merely make a modification to an existing function in the class, while extending it would indeed get around the license issues, his extension would contain much of my original code, and therefore, it should be seen as a modification, and not an original piece of code, and, therefore, should be distributed.

I hope I am making this clear enough to understand.

Does anyone know of a software license in existence that meets my needs?