Removing the "powered by" link

A lot of open source web applications are picky about the copyright notice acknowledging that web application's role in powering the website. The Enano project takes a very liberal stance to this topic, as we realize that not everybody is able to display such a notice.

What this refers to

Here we are talking about the small link that says "Powered by Enano" on the footer of every theme. It often sits in juxtaposition to your own copyright notice, and is styled either the same way or with less emphasis. This page does NOT discuss the "Powered by Enano" sidebar button that you can toggle in the administration panel, which is entirely optional and does not affect your support from the Enano Project.

Legal argument

Many open source projects cite this passage of the GPL as justification for requiring all their users to show the copyright notice:

"If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)"

GNU General Public License, version 2
Section 2c

The Enano Project believes this to be invalid. In a legal sense, Enano is not an interactive program; that is, it does not directly read commands or events from a terminal or GUI interface. It is a client-server application. It takes textual commands sent from a web browser and returns HTML. Moreover, from an ethical standpoint, we think that open source doesn't mean "you're free to modify anything but the copyright notice." It means "you're free to edit anything." (But you have to leave copyright info in the source code comments, of course.)

Therefore, the Enano project believes you are not under any legal requirement to display the "Powered by Enano" footer link.

Finally, if the user searches for "About Enano" they will get a special page that explains their rights, the lack of a warranty, and other basic provisions of the GPL, including a link to the full license text on another special page. About Enano is the page that the word "Enano" links to in the footer text. Again, we do not believe there is a legal obligation to leave this page in, but removing or modifying it may affect your support from the Enano Project as stated below.

If you omit the link

We think that showing the "Powered by Enano" link is a fair trade for the incredible amount of functionality we're giving you in the form of Enano. We kindly ask that you leave the link in its place if at all possible, for the following reasons:

• Enano is the work of many people who have dedicated lots of time to the project, and it's only fair to acknowledge them
• Enano is still a growing project, and the publicity from that link will draw more users to it, allowing a greater diversity in the user base and improving quality for everybody
• The link is always formatted in such a way that it blends well with your own copyright notice, so it's not visually intrusive
• Showing the link lets you contribute to the Enano project without having to lift a finger

If you choose to remove the link, we reserve the right to respond in a terse form when you request free support from us, because you'd be drawing from the project without contributing anything back.

This page is intended to provide general information on the legal stance of the Enano project. Nothing on this page has any legal value or should be taken as legal advice or official license from Enano Project copyright holders. The full text of the GNU General Public License may be viewed on this special page.