[clug] CMS usage in Canberra

David Schoen neerolyte at gmail.com
Fri Sep 25 05:01:53 MDT 2009


I'm not a lawyer but I previously did a bunch of development on and
around Matrix (both GPL and SSV components) and didn't have any
problems with Squiz's licencing. The problems I had were all with the
government department I worked for. Some components of what I did
caught Squiz's interest but I was never able to sort out all the
licensing mess to let them use it.

I actually work at Squiz now and haven't yet come across any issues
with Squiz being forceful about acquiring modified code (if they were
I may have actually had a better argument for GPLing my previous
work). Perhaps I just haven't seen it.

Code developed by clients isn't a free ride, Squiz will still have to
thoroughly test it for integration problems, ensure it meets coding
standards, ensure they're not breaking some licensing agreement,
convert it to be generic enough for all clients to use and ensure that
the generic version doesn't break the client specific version on the
next upgrade. I haven't actually been involved in that process yet,
but all in all I'd be surprised if most of the time it isn't easier to
just start from scratch (unless of course the code was developed
following the Squiz standards and already GPL'd).

A lot of code in Matrix that is SSV gets promoted to GPL after a few
years. Part of the reason for this seems to be that while components
are new it's better if people who are paying us for support use new
components first, that way Squiz knows about the problems early (no
testing process ever catches everything), but I haven't seen an
official policy.

I've been working with Matrix for nearly 3 years, developing against
and modifying it for nearly 2 and working at Squiz for 2 months. I
definitely don't know everything about the product, but I haven't had
any of the issues people are complaining about here. YMMV.

Cheers,
Dave

2009/9/24 Michael Manning <michael at michaelmanning.org>:
> My only comment on my source matrix is that their license was not full GPL
> last time I looked and required all code be resubmitted back to them within
> 30days of modification and they in some way still owned it? Don't quote me
> but just didn't feel quite right at the time.
>
> Cheers,
> Michael Manning
> http://www.michaelmanning.org/
> http://twitter.com/mmanning13
>
> On Sep 24, 2009 10:44 PM, "Wally" <wally at wic.net.au> wrote:
>
> Have a look at mysource matrix (squiz). AGIMO were pushing it a few years
> back
> http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/agimo/ict-infrastructure/index.html
>
> and is available under GPL.  http://www.squiz.net.au/mysource-matrix-cms
>
> A number of government departments took it up as a result.
>
> -----Original Message----- From: linux-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:
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>
> These guys http://agileware.com.au/ support drupal. While, at the more
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