> I guess I'm concerned that someone will steal it and make it into their
> own product and start selling it.
That should be a non-concern, really, and here is why:
Hypothetical Story:
--- Begin Story ---
Alice writes a program to organize recipes.
Alice GPL's her program, and puts it up for download,
so that it is both free like beer and free like speech.
Let's say, she puts it up on source forge.
We'll call the program that Alice wrote Ogre.
Bob is a mostly a baker, but he is also a average programmer.
Bob, being a baker, would like a way to keep track of
his recipes using a computer.
Bob finds Alice's program, Ogre, and installs it.
He finds that it works perfectly, except he'd like to
be able to search by ingredient. Well, Bob is a programmer, he can add
that feature!
He looks at the Ogre source code, and sees that it is written in Perl.
Bob knows perl like the back of his hand, so he studies the code,
and once he understands it, and adds the feature.
Now, a number of things can happen:
1) Bob sends a list of his changes to Alice, so she can merge them with
her version of Orge. Alice will fall in love with Bob, they'll get
married, and have 3 children, and live happily ever after.
2) Bob does nothing; he keeps his changes to himself/his company.
This is perfectly OK, the GPL doesn't forbid this. He is free
keep his changes private, so long as he or his company are the only
ones using the program.
3) Bob sells his modified version of Ogre for $20 dollars, but keeps the
source code to himself, even after users of it ask him for it.
Alice discovers this, and sues Bob into bankruptcy.
Bob looses his business, his house, and his car.
Bob lives in an alley for the rest of his life, his only companions
the rats.
4) Bob sells his modified version of Ogre for $20 dollars, including
or at least allowing anyone interested to get the source code for
free or for no more than the cost of shipping.
Alice finds out, and includes his changes into her own version of
Orge.
5) Bob gives his version away for free, source code and all,
and informs people on the Orge download page, that if they
want to, to buy some cakes or breads from him.
Bob, perhaps, gets a few more customers.
Now, say another person, Cindy.
Cindy owns a Pizza place, and also could use a program like Ogre, so
she gets a copy of Alice's version, and enjoys using it.
Cindy would like to be able to have sub-categories of recipes.
But, she isn't a programmer. She asks Alice to add this feature
to Ogre. Alice says sure, for $400 dollars.
Now, two things could happen:
1) Cindy agrees, pays Alice $400 bucks, and gets
Ogre customized to her needs. Alice gets $400 bucks,
and the rest of the world get the benefit of the
new feature.
2) Cindy, devastated that Alice dare ask for soo much money
to do such a simple thing, has a nervous breakdown,
and starts collecting cats.
Okay, now a guy named only "Dude", who was a former heavy-weight lifter,
and now works at a retail sports outlet, starts selling an unmodified
version of Ogre -- except he calls it Ralph -- for $90 dollars,
and without the source code.
Alice learns of this, and does one of two things:
1) She sues Dude for damages or the store where he works,
2) She uses her martial arts skills (which she acquired (with money gained
from adding features to Orge, donations, and T-Shirt sales) from the
local Judo school) and challenges Dude to one-on-one combat.
Dude, now a quadriplegic, goes insane and starts acting
like a humming bird.
--- End Story ---
Basically, the GPL means
"Share and Share Alike", if someone makes your CMS into a
product and start selling it, people won't buy it unless
it offers something yours doesn't (probabbly, anyway...), or
if they make a change, you can include that change in your version...
Was that clear enough?
BTW, someone mentioned patents... That's a bad idea. If you patent some
software-thingy, a lot of people will hate you, and that's not something
you want. Generally, software patents make people/organizations look
bad. (ala Amazon).
--
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink
that they may live.
-- Socrates
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