Re: : License Questions for Proposed Windows 10 & VDI Upgrade

[Guy Harris <guy () alum mit edu>]

On Dec 11, 2018, at 2:54 AM, License Management Team <License.Management.Team () cybg com> wrote:

> We are in the planning stages of a proposed upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Operating System, with the intention 
> of deploying on physical devices and also on a new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in select areas of 
> our organisation. 
> In order that we continue to adhere to the licensing terms and any compliance requirements going forward, we would 
> request that you could confirm the following answers to the below question set in relation to the following  
> Wiresharkapplication. 
>
> Wireshark 1.1

Is "1.1" a release number or is it just a section number?

If it's a release number, then please note that

        1) it was a development release, not an official release;

        2) it came out over 10 years ago:

                https://www.wireshark.org/news/20080914.html

           about 7 years before Windows 10 came out, so we can't guarantee that it'll work on Windows 10, and will 
probably not have any time to test it on Windows 10.

As for licensing terms, Wireshark is licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 2:

        https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

That license

        1) doesn't care whether you're running on Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows Vista, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, macOS, 
Tru64 UNIX, ..., so there are *no* licensing restrictions that would forbid running on Windows 10;

        2) doesn't care whether you're running on a physical or virtual machine, so there are *no* licensing 
restrictions that would forbid running on a virtual desktop;

        3) doesn't care how it's distributed, so using AppSense shouldn't impose any licensing requirements;

        4) doesn't care what you're using it for, so there are no special licensing issues if you're using it for 
testing compatibility, analyzing network problems, trying to catch a cheating spouse or partner (yes, somebody *did* 
use it for that purpose once, although I can't find the post where it was mentioned), etc..

In addition, Wireshark isn't a commercial application, it's a free-software application ("free as in beer", as in "we 
don't charge money for it" and "free as in speech", as in "if you've downloaded it you can give it away, run it 
wherever you want, get the source code and modify it however you want, etc." with the only restrictions being those 
imposed by the GPL v2, e.g. if you give somebody a binary copy you have to make the source code used to generate that 
binary copy available to them - read the entire license at the link above for details), so there are no commercial 
implications (other than maybe "don't violate our trademarks on the name Wireshark, the shark fin image, etc.") for 
what you do to Wireshark (again, other than "if you provide the binary to somebody, they need to be able to get the 
source" - see the GPL v2, again).

And as for the current version of Wireshark, 2.6.5, it seems to work on Windows 10, although you'll probably need to 
install Npcap:

        https://nmap.org/npcap/

rather than WinPcap if you want to capture network traffic.
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