On Sunday 22 September 2002 21:46, Andreas Mueller wrote: > On Sun, 2002-09-22 at 19:01, Mike A. Harris wrote: > > [...] > > > > >Therefore, I will restrict the GPL license for cdrdao so that > > > section 2 of the GPL will not apply to the libedc_ecc code. I > > > will shortly prepare a new cdrdao release with the new > > > license terms and remove all older releases from sf.net. > > > > The GPL license explicitly states that you may not make further > > restrictions on the license. In other words, it is not > > possible to say "My program is GPLv2, plus you cant do this or > > that". It is prohibited. > > > > If the GPL license conflicts with the license of another > > component in the software, you must either remove the > > GPL conflicting parts, or alternatively relicense your software > > with a different license than the GPL. > > > > You can't GPL part of your program however, and have GPL > > incompatible code linked into it. > > I tend to believe this but can you please let me know where this > is stated in the GPLv2 license text (I mean the part about making > restrictions to the license). I'm assuming here that you are > quiet familiar with this topic so that it is easy for you to find > it. I already scanned the license text but could not find > something matching. > > The libedc_ecc code is held in a library which gets statically > linked to the cdrdao executable. The library is not available as > a separate package so that the cdrdao sources ship with the > libedc_ecc sources. The libedc_ecc sources are strictly separated > from the remaining cdrdao sources. Does this count as linking GPL > incompatible code in?
Well, as you say it gets statically linked in. So yes, that counts as linking the code in. Since you can't take out libedc_ecc and use it in another program, its license is clearly not GPL-compatible. This means that if cdrdao is published under the GPL, linking them is against the cdrdao license. However, if you publish something under a modified GPL, ie one without the "viral" component, then as far as I can see it would be possible. This would however change the license terms for the rest of cdrdao as well (it would effectively turn into an LGPL license I think). Lourens -- GPG public key: http://home.student.utwente.nl/l.e.veen/lourens.key -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
