On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 02:10:08PM +0100, Simon Phipps wrote: > > On Sep 7, 2005, at 13:46, Sven Luther wrote: > > >Now, i believe the OpenSolaris kernel itself is not a problem, since > >it is > >devoid of any GPL/LGPLed code (am i right there ?). If this where not > >the > >case, OpenSolaris would be undistributable, so i guess Sun didn't > >burden in > >this way, especially not when claiming to have the lawyers look over > >all the > >code all that time back. > > Correct. Getting back to the original subject, what does that mean for > the potential of creating Debian/Unix based on OpenSolaris?
Ok, ... Debian GNU/OpenSolaris, as it would be called, having a OpenSolaris kernel and a GNU userland is not concerned by the GPL incompatibility of the CDDL, but solely on the non-freeness of the CDDL, which seems to involve right now the controversial choice-of-venue clause. At least if you want that effort to be part of debian, and not create your own thing apart from it. Now, my opinion is that the choice-of-venue clause problem should be cut in two, and leave the choice-of-venue to the defendant, as seems to be the default in international contract law, but it would be nice to have real legal advice on this. This would be akin to old-time duels, where the defendant had choice of weapons :). In any case, the choice-of-law is more important and can be set without problems in the licence. The second point would include creating a mixed userland of OpenSolaris and non-OpenSolaris userland, where GPL or LGPL compatibility of the userland tools would be a big plus to easily intermingle the various apps and libraries, but not an absolute need, and is a complicated mess due to all the licences considered. So, my recomendation is the following : 1) for the OpenSolaris kernel, change the CDDL to not include choice-of-venue. 2) use a different GPL/LGPL compatible licence for the userland, or possibly a dual licenced CDDL/<insert random GPL compatible licene> solution. All userland projects (mozilla, Qt/KDE, OpenOffice), have gone for something such. I am still not sure for the potential of using GPLed kernel drivers with the OpenSolaris kernel, as i am not familiar enough with the technical way the OpenSolaris kernel operates, but as long as there is a clear interface between the kernel and modules, the derivative-work-thingy will not cross this boundary, anymore than it does for linux modules. Friendly, Sven Luther _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
