On 2009-04-02 03:02, Ryan Schmidt wrote: > On Mar 31, 2009, at 09:09, Anders F Björklund wrote: > >> Using the MacPorts version of OpenSSL has a licensing problem with >> GPL ports, though... When distributing package binaries, that is. > > Oh. Good. Grief. > > So when we get going on binaries, we're going to have to provide > portfile syntax to indicate whether we may distribute binaries of the > built thing?
Having license information would be nice anyway in my opinion, regardless if it will be used for building binaries. It sounds easy to just add a new license field to the Portfile syntax. But the hard part will be to fill it with actual values. Maybe we could script something which asks freshmeat/sourceforge/ohloh for license information or scan for LICENSE in the work dir. But of course it would still require manual acknowledgment, I would not entirely rely on a script here. >> Like http://www.finkproject.org/doc/packaging/policy.php? >> phpLang=en#openssl > > That says use of OpenSSL with GPL-licensed software is questionable. > It says Fink won't distribute such binaries, and implies users > building from source are no better off, legally. To me, this says > that if there is a problem for MacPorts to distribute binaries > including OpenSSL support, then the problem exists for all users of > MacPorts using these ports, regardless of whether it was provided as > a binary or compiled by the user. In my opinion this is not a problem as long as you build from source. GPL only covers "terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification". >> http://www.openssl.org/support/faq.html#LEGAL2 (using system >> openssl is ok) > > > That doesn't seem to prohibit the use of OpenSSL for us. It says > nothing about binaries. It says "the GPL does not place restrictions > on using libraries that are part of the normal operating system > distribution". OpenSSL is part of the normal Mac OS X distribution. Hmmmm, but it is not the OpenSSL installation of the system we use. So those are actually not part of the OS distribution. > It says "Some GPL software copyright holders claim that you infringe > on their rights if you use OpenSSL with their software on operating > systems that don't normally include OpenSSL." Mac OS X does normally > include OpenSSL, so I don't see any problem here. But, I'm not a lawyer. I never met any programmer claiming to be a lawyer :-D But you might have a valid point here... Rainer _______________________________________________ macports-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macports-dev
