Dear David,

In message <[email protected]> you 
wrote:
>
> Note this comment:
> # Except as otherwise marked, this code is licensed under the "MIT license".
> # However, the "override" code that patches clisp is derived
> # from clisp, which is GPLv2.
> # Thus consider the work as a whole as "MIT and GPLv2".

IANAL, but from t strictly legal point of view "the work as a whole"
is definitly GPLv2.  You cannot release it under MIT terms (i. e.
without offering the source code).

> I agree with you that, from a *legal* standpoint, if you accept the
> WHOLE file you end up with just the GPLv2 requirements. But knowing

ACK.

> that there's a variance matters; it's quite possible to extract a
> part and end up with just the MIT portions.

As a developer I think you should avoid to mix such code in a single
source file.  Instead, you should split it into files with clear
license terms for each of them.   Otherwise you will end up with an
inextricable mess.

> This one file is part of a larger system that is mostly MIT, but
> has this one GPLv2 file. Claiming it's just "GPLv2" would be very
> misleading. Being able to report the options, collected with AND and
> OR, is very helpful.

But there there is no actual choice.  Yes, you take the parts of the
project that do not include the GPL code - and you can use this code
under the MIT license for other purposes.  But as soon as we talk
about the thing as a whole (say, the linked binary), then you do not
have any choice, then it's GPL.  GPL without any ORs or ANDs.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [email protected]
"Though a program be but three lines long,
someday it will have to be maintained."
- The Tao of Programming
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