Anthony, Thanks very much for this very helpful message.
I'm curious of there is any difference for software released under the LGPL instead of the GPL. Can it legally link to openSSL? -- Dave Anthony DeRobertis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As one of the regular participants on debian-legal, and probably one of > the participants in that thread, I'd like to clarify a few things: > > > - OpenSSL is not considered 'part of the system libraries', and > > thus does not fall under that excemption in the GPL. > > Debian can not ever use the system libraries exception. If you carefuly > read GPL(3), it's clear why: "need not include anything that is normally > distributed...with the major components...of the operating > system...unless that component itself accompanies the executable." On a > Debian FTP server or cd/dvd set, everything accompanies each other. So > even if openssl is normally distributed with the major components of the > Debian OS, it doesn't matter; the executable is being distributed with > openssl. > > If you link against Apple's openssl, then Fink can probably use this > exception. > > > - The FSF GPL seems to argue (in their GPL FAQ) that if a (GPL > > licenced) application has specific code to interface with a > > non-GPL package, then you may assume that such an exception is > > implied by the authors of the code. I would then logically > > conclude, that would imply those authors were at fault by just > > distributing that specific code interfacing with OpenSSL. However, > > I am not a lawyer, but had the impression that the legal people > > did not agree with my logic here. So I gave up. > > There are two problems with this. > > 1. Debian is very conservative on licensing issues. So we never > allow this argument. > > 2. This would really only apply if OpenSSL support was in the > software from the start and no code has been borrowed from > other GPL projects. > > If the OpenSSL code was added later then contributers before > the addition of OpenSSL certainly can't be said to have > intended their code to be used with gpl-incompatible OpenSSL. > > If the project has used GPL code from other projects then > there is no reason to expect those authors are OK with OpenSSL > either. > > > ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Fink-devel mailing list Fink-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-devel
