# Rails and GPL **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 29, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855 "2006-08-29T20:52:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/1 "2006-08-29T20:52:19Z")
I have some Rails software I am working on that I think I want to eventually release under the GPL. I am looking for advice in this area. Specifically… 1. Does the GPL comment have to appear in all files, or just certain ones? For example, do I have to include it in the view templates? 2. Is there a way to get Rails, or the Radrails plugin, or some other Eclipse feature to automatically include the GPL comments in my generated/edited files or do I have to manually add the comments to each one? 3. Are there other licenses I should be looking at aside from GPL/LGPL? Any thoughts from people with experience in this area would be appreciated. Thanks, Nathan ---
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/2 "2006-08-30T11:00:32Z")
hi nathan! Nathan L. [29/08/06 20:35]: > 1. Does the GPL comment have to appear in all files, or just > certain ones? For example, do I have to include it in the view > templates? > well, i decided to include it in \*.rb files only, however, not sure > about that yet… > 1. Is there a way to get Rails, or the Radrails plugin, or some > other Eclipse feature to automatically include the GPL comments > in my generated/edited files or do I have to manually add the > comments to each one? > in order to have it done automatically i slightly modified > Rails::Generator::Commands#file to include a given header to every > \*.rb file. that way both files generated by the rails command and > script/generate get that header prepended. > 1. Are there other licenses I should be looking at aside from > GPL/LGPL? > personally i’d prefer the GPL over nearly any other license! > however, as [1] points out, one might consider sticking with rails’ > (so-called) MIT license even in spite of other preferences. > generally, [2] seems to be a good starting point to learn about > different licenses. [1] [http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/65177](http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/65177) [2] [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html) > Any thoughts from people with experience in this area would be > appreciated. > sry, not much of that on my part 😉 hope i could help, anyway… cheers jens – Jens W., Dipl.-Bibl. (FH) prometheus - Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv für Forschung & Lehre An St. Laurentius 4, 50931 KölnTel.: +49 (0)221 470-6668, E-Mail: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://www.prometheus-bildarchiv.de/](http://www.prometheus-bildarchiv.de/) ---
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/3 "2006-08-30T12:55:41Z")
Nathan L. wrote: > 1. Does the GPL comment have to appear in all files, or just certain > ones? For example, do I have to include it in the view templates? Including license information in all files isn’t necessary, AFAIK. You just have to clearly declare that your application is released under the GPL license - even a signle LICENSE.txt file in the main folder of your app will do. You may also consider including that info in files that are available to the public (.js, .css etc) ---
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/4 "2006-08-30T16:05:15Z")
RadRails has a Templates feature similar to TextMate’s snippets. You could create one of those and insert the lengthy GPL statement into there. (or perhaps a reference to a LICENCE file in the root of your project?) Nic ---
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/5 "2006-08-31T15:49:59Z")
Hi Nathan, On Aug 29, 2006, at 2:35 PM, Nathan L. wrote: > 1. Does the GPL comment have to appear in all files, or just > certain ones? For example, do I have to include it in the view > templates? There is a section in the GPL titled “How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs” (at the bottom). I think this is what you want to be reading. Now, I don’t want to be obnoxious/rude/annoying/out-of-line here, especially since I personally like the GPL quite a lot, but I suspect you have not read the GPL recently so I think it might be worth taking the time to do so. Cheers, Bob * * * Bob H. – blogs at \<[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/) hutch/\> Recursive Design Inc. – [http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/) Raconteur – [http://www.raconteur.info/](http://www.raconteur.info/) xampl for Ruby – [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/) ---
**Author:** ![nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nathandelane](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nathandelane)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-gpl/66855/6 "2006-08-30T16:22:36Z")
Nathan L. wrote: > I have some Rails software I am working on that I think I want to > eventually release under the GPL. I am looking for advice in this area. > Specifically… > > 1. Does the GPL comment have to appear in all files, or just certain > ones? For example, do I have to include it in the view templates? > > 2. Is there a way to get Rails, or the Radrails plugin, or some other > Eclipse feature to automatically include the GPL comments in my > generated/edited files or do I have to manually add the comments to each > one? > > 3. Are there other licenses I should be looking at aside from GPL/LGPL? > > Any thoughts from people with experience in this area would be > appreciated. > > Thanks, > Nathan It’s perfectly fine and even potentially interesting to hear about people’s experiences in this area. But if you really need to protect yourself (which is the case if there are interests at stake other than your own personal ones), then you need to talk to a qualified IP attorney. Unfortunately, not all that many of them are really knowledgeable about FOSS issues, so be prepared to pay for him to educate himself too.