Legal issues for bundling Wine with my Application

asafbenzaken · Post by **asafbenzaken** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:20 pm

Hi

I've recently written some graphic application in windows.
i've was successfull in running it under Linux using Wine.
I had to add gdiplus.dll to the windows/system32 directory.

now for my question.
Is it legal for me to create a "Bundle" Wine with my application and make it work "native like" under linux - and then sell it?
Meaning that the end user will buy my software, that eventually install my application while it will run under the Wine platform.

my question regards legal issues for Wine but mainly for Microsoft.
Since i'm using gdiplus.dll, arent i'm obligated to pay something to microsoft?

Thanks

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:27 pm

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 11:20 AM, asafbenzaken <[email protected]> wrote:

I've recently written some graphic application in windows.
i've was successfull in running it under Linux using Wine.
I had to add gdiplus.dll to the windows/system32 directory.

Please file a bug for whatever you ran into in gdiplus that made you
need the native DLL. Perhaps we can fix it.

now for my question.
Is it legal for me to create a "Bundle" Wine with my application
and make it work "native like" under linux - and then sell it?

Yes. Google does this with Picasa (well, they don't sell
it, but that doesn't matter).

Meaning that the end user will but a software that will install my
application while it will run under the Wine platform?

my question regards legal issues for Wine but mainly for Microsoft.
since i'm using gdiplus.dll, arent i'm obligated to pay something to microsoft?

A better path would be to bundle gdiplus.dll with your Windows
app, and then tell people to run the app with Wine-1.0.
You could provide a script that would download Wine 1.0
and install your app in it, say.
- Dan

austin987 · Post by **austin987** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:29 pm

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 1:20 PM, asafbenzaken <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi

I've recently written some graphic application in windows.
i've was successfull in running it under Linux using Wine.
I had to add gdiplus.dll to the windows/system32 directory.

now for my question.
Is it legal for me to create a "Bundle" Wine with my application and make it work "native like" under linux - and then sell it?
Meaning that the end user will but a software that will install my application while it will run under the Wine platform?

my question regards legal issues for Wine but mainly for Microsoft.
since i'm using gdiplus.dll, arent i'm obligated to pay something to microsoft?

Thanks

You should consult a lawyer about this. If you're using native
gdiplus, the issue gets even more complex. You'd be better off filing
bugs for whatever gdi functions are missing/incomplete in wine's
gdiplus, so you could avoid using native.

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:33 pm

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Austin English <[email protected]> wrote:

You'd be better off filing
bugs for whatever gdi functions are missing/incomplete in wine's
gdiplus, so you could avoid using native.

As long as his app bundles gdiplus for use on Windows
systems that need it, he's fine.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Fri May 02, 2008 2:36 pm

Dan Kegel wrote:On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Austin English <[email protected]> wrote:
You'd be better off filing
bugs for whatever gdi functions are missing/incomplete in wine's
gdiplus, so you could avoid using native.
As long as his app bundles gdiplus for use on Windows
systems that need it, he's fine.

If that version/form of gdiplus is an authorized redistributable binary from Microsoft. They explicitly prohibit redistributions of any parts of the system unless they give you a redistributable package and a the right to do so.

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Fri May 02, 2008 3:05 pm

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 12:36 PM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:

If that version/form of gdiplus is an authorized redistributable binary from Microsoft. They explicitly prohibit redistributions of any parts of the system unless they give you a redistributable package and a the right to do so.

Oh, absolutely, you have to obey the EULA.
For instance, if you use the redistributable from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... 590FEAA05A
you can clearly bundle that gdiplus.dll with your
windows app.

I am not a lawyer, but:

You clearly should not bundle Microsoft's gdiplus.dll
with a Linux-only version of your app.
It's fine to bundle it with the Windows version of
your app, though, to let it run on versions of Windows
that don't have that library.
- Dan

asafbenzaken · Post by **asafbenzaken** » Sat May 03, 2008 3:46 am

Thanks for all your replys regarding the legal issues.

about the GDIPLUS DLL
if i understand correctly, there should be no reason for me to add it because Wine have a ported version of it?
for some reason, i cant find it...

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:52 am

On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 1:46 AM, asafbenzaken <[email protected]> wrote:

about the GDIPLUS DLL
if i understand correctly, there should be no reason for me
to add it because Wine have a ported version of it?

Right, though Wine's might be missing some functions.
So run with Wine's instead of Windows', and see
what happens.

for some reason, i cant find it...

You don't need to find it. Wipe out your ~/.wine directory, e.g.
rm -rf ~.wine
reinstall your app *without* copying in a gdiplus.dll, and
run your app. Let us know what happens.
- Dan