[Nagiosplug-devel] Plugin licensing

[Kevin Menard]

Hi,

As noted on the user list, I'm heading up a development effort to
provide Nagios integration with our WebReboot line of products.  We're
committed to open sourcing them, but I've always been more partial to
the BSD-style licenses.  Actually, I tend to use the ASL for everything,
since I work on ASF projects.

Anyway, without getting into a licensing flamewar, I'm wondering to what
extent the derivative works clause of the GPL applies to Nagios plugins.
Given that a plugin is essentially just a command-line program that
takes arguments and returns a status code, it would appear that an app
may not be a derivative work at all.  If the plugin starts using the
Nagios environment variables or the status codes, then the area starts
getting murkier.  Given that I'm not a lawyer and don't profess to be
one, I'll probably just go with the consensus here.  Does a Nagios
plugin have to be GPL'd?

Thanks,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin Menard
Servprise International, Inc.
800.832.3823 x308