> possible to find a similar compiled binary version of lynx with SSL. Where is
> the logic ?
Netscape and Microsoft pay royalties.
Although SSL lynx for non-commercial use wouldn't require royalties,
its commercial use in the USA (and probably Japan) does require royalties.
Lynx uses the terms of the Free Software Foundation's General Public
Licence.
The FSF believe that there should be no restrictions on free distribution
of software, and, in particular, disagrees with software patents, so
have included a clause that voids the GPL if any patent etc. would
force some potential recipients of the software to pay royalties.
Copyright materials may not, by default, be copied, so a voided licence
leaves one with no rights to copy for distribution.
The only escape route within the GPL is for all the copyright holders to
agree to issuing the software with a clause that forbids its distribution
to and in the USA and Japan etc., something that would be difficult to
obtain agreement to for Lynx because of the number of people holding
copyrights on parts of it. (Assuming you got the agreement, you could
probably issue it with two GPLs, and derived works including SSL would
be under the more restrictive version.)
Alternatively, it could be taken out of the GPL, but getting the copyright
clearances for this would also be almost impossible; it might require
large scale re-writes to eliminate compromised code.
Most requests for plug and play SSL Lynx come from the USA, so invoking
GPL clause 8 would not help; you would have to take it out of GPL altogether.
Note that Netscape have a patent on SSL that won't expire soon, but theirs
is royalty free to stop others obtaining patents on it.
