Hi list, On 11/21/2012 07:11 AM, Michael Haberler wrote: > Yes it is time, but we have not ticked off on a key sanitary non-code > prerequisites > > The GPL2-only situation prevents bringing in outside code which > requires GPL2+ licenses. > > I table this issue again to get this finally resolved, I do not want > to 'slide into some L3 work' and that glaring issue somehow falls > under the table because of all the excitement about features and > grand ideas about what could be done. We had a push recently, and it > tapered off without tangible results. > > This licensing issue *must* be resolved before we go ahead, there is > no way around it.
Licensing is a complex issue, not simply about the original authors' wishes, but also what external software LCNC is built against, how LCNC is built against them (linked, code copied, or not), and how those external softwares are licensed. Including those external softwares introduces license compatibility constraints. An example of such a constraint: On my system, LCNC is linked against the GNU readline library v6, licensed GPLv3+. Therefore LCNC must either also be licensed GPLv3, or else must drop that library. If the readline v6 library were dropped, LCNC could be licensed as GPLv2, according to my incomplete survey below. One possible workaround would be to use the GPLv2+-licensed readline v5, available on fedora as 'compat-readline5'. (Anyone know what readline library used in Debian?) An example of a non-constraint: LCNC is compiled with gcc and uses source-highlight to process documentation. Those tools are licensed GPLv3, but since LCNC does not link to them or copy code from them, LCNC licensing isn't affected. An example of a problematic constraint: The RTAI and Xenomai-kernel versions link against both the GPLv3+ readline v6 library (on my system, anyway) and the GPLv2-only Linux kernel. LCNC cannot legally be shipped like that. Unless... I don't understand the architecture of LCNC well, but for example if the RT piece linked to the kernel talks to the UI piece linked to readline only through shm, there may be an opportunity to ship the two pieces separately under separate licenses. Here's an incomplete survey based on the requirements discovered while building the el6/fedora packages. I don't know how some of the programs are combined with LCNC, and I don't know about compatibility of all of the licenses; hopefully others can help with that. Otherwise, a quick compatibility chart for the GNU licenses can be found here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AllCompatibility John Linked: LGPLv2+: gtk2-devel, libgnomeprintui22-devel MIT: mesa-libGL-devel, mesa-libGLU-devel, libXaw-devel Boost: boost-devel LGPLv2+: pth-devel, libmodbus-devel GPLv3+: readline-devel GPLv2: Linux kernel (Xenomai-kernel, RTAI, RTLinux) Dunno: TCL: tcl-devel, tk-devel, bwidget LGPLv3+: python-mtTkinter MIT: blt-devel GPLv3+ and LGPLv2+: gettext python: python-devel, python-lxml Not linked: GPLv3+: gcc, gcc-c++ GPLv2+: lyx, dblatex GPLv3+: source-highlight ImageMagick: ImageMagick GPLv2+ and OFSFDL: dvipng GPL+ and GPLv2+: asciidoc >= 8.5 GPLv2: Linux kernel (Xenomai-user, RT_PREEMPT, Posix) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list Emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
