Timothy Clacy wrote: > According to my overflowing inbox, this is very much in discussion. > Not the part about not obaying the existing license.
> >> openocd will continue to support linking against the D2XX >> library, and such binaries may not be distributed - that is >> mandated by the current licence, and it is at it is, like it or not. >> >> Discussions asking the developers to break their own license >> are not useful, and requests to do so will not increase the >> will to provide a real solution. >> > > > I'm not asking you to break anything; I'm merely suggesting doing > nothing is an option worth considering. OpenOCD has been a very useful > project for many years exactly as it is. > Yes, you are. OpenOCD has been GPLv2 from the beginning, so there is no change. If you want to distribute binaries linked against D2XX, you are asking us to break the license, and multiple developers have clearly stated that such is not an acceptable options, so stop asking for it. > Some might say arguing against a blunder is a useful contribution for > Windows users, like myself. > It may have been a blunder, but it is too late to change the license now, except by getting approval from *all* copyright holders, and some have already stated they will NAK such a change. >> The driver is not the problem, the library is. And as long as >> the library 's license makes any kind of additional >> restriction, I believe it is not compatible with the GPL - but IANAL. >> > > > The library merely provides a friendly API to the driver. You don't need > to link to the library in order to use the driver; it's a convenience > provided by the manufacturer for software developers like us... so why > find reasons not to use it. > You are the first to tell so. In that case, you are free to contribute code that uses the driver without linking against the troublesome (in terms of licensing) library. The reason for "not to use it" is simply that the licensing terms of the library are not compatible with OpenOCD. That is a show-stopper for anyone who wants to distribute compiled binaries. The developers do not stop you from using the library - all the code is there in the sources, you just have to build them yourself. cu Michael _______________________________________________ Openocd-development mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/openocd-development
