James Kosin wrote:
> Tomasz Kojm wrote:
>> Ed Kasky wrote:
>>> Tomasz Kojm wrote:
>>>>
>>>> lead the advancement of ClamAV and the CVD as employees of Sourcefire.
>>>> Both the ClamAV engine and the signature database will remain under GPL.
>>>
>>> Until they start charging for current updates, etc. like they do with
>>> Snort...
>>
>> you should rest assured that the virus database will stay GPL and will be
>> distributed the same way as so far, Sourcefire has no intention of changing
>> this.
>
> I'm complaining now... because the virus database is not the source
> to build the binaries. If hey are only saying the virus database is
> the ONLY part to stay GPL we may have to pay through the nose for the
> source to build the compiled binaries!
>
> I'm HOPING this hasn't happened and you mis-typed your reply.
The original email said that BOTH would remain under the GPL.
However, there's nothing about the GPL that prevents them from charging
money. GPL is free as in speech, not free as in beer or lunch. After
all, I made a nice chunk of change working for a company that "made free
software expensive" (Cygnus with gcc/gdb).
On the other hand, if sourcefire starts to charge money, there's nothing
that would prevent the community from starting a new distribution of the
codebase, either.
I don't exactly blame the ClamAV team for doing this. It's entirely
within their rights, and it has been nice that they've had ClamAV out
there in the form it has been for all of this time ... but it was also
nice to have a non-corporate driven AV solution out there, especially
one that had the solid reputation of ClamAV. No matter what sourcefire
does with the project, completely free or subscription driven, etc., the
fact is that ClamAV isn't the same starting today. It's now just
another AV product, instead of a community project. That's kind of sad.
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