Hi Guys, I am sorry that I am following up on this dead thread I started long ago [1], and which Francesco was kind to follow up to.
Now I've got another project to package and got the same issue, and I am not clear if I have the right understanding of GPL-compatibility. AFAIK it means that you can use GPL-compatible licensed project within GPL-ed project, and not vise-versa! Am I correct? And actually if I am reading it right, wikipedia says the same: "Many of the most common free software licenses, such as the original MIT/X license, the BSD license (in its current 3-clause form), and the LGPL, are "GPL-compatible". That is, their code can be combined with a program under the GPL without conflict (the new combination would have the GPL applied to the whole)." so -- combination has to be GPLed! If I am not right -- then Francesco is right and I can easily use GPLed project (and don't even ask for LGPL) from anything which is 'GPL-compatible'. If I am right -- then I guess we might have quite a few packages in debian already which would need a "closer look". And what could be a possible work-around? double-licensing? search for exceptions from GPLed project authors (release it under LGPL for use in a specific project etc) Thanks in advance! [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2008/04/msg00005.html On Wed, 02 Apr 2008, Yaroslav Halchenko wrote: > Dear Legal People, > I am one of the developers of PyMVPA toolbox [1], which we currently > distribute under MIT License. It is written in Python and is actually a > framework either to create scripts for the analysis or just perform > analysis interactively within python (ipython) shell environment. > Recently we decided to make use of shogun library inside of > PyMVPA, which has python bindings available. Shogun is distributed > under GPL (not LGPL). > IIRC Python itself, since it is simply a programming language, is > not limited in licensing terms to what libraries are allowed to be used > (not shipped) within Python, thus it is ok to use shogun within Python. > But do we have to double-license PyMVPA for people to be legally able to > use shogun functionality within PyMVPA? or since we don't explicitly > link to shogun, neither bundle it together we are ok? We don't want to > switch to GPL completely since we don't want to limit MIT-compatible > licensed software to absorb/use our (non-GPLed) code. > If we do have to release it under GPL as well, would it be ok to > distribute entire PyMVPA in a single package and just mention that some > parts of PyMVPA (which make use of GPL) cannot be distributed/used under > MIT license and are distributed solely under GPL? > Thank you in advance for clarifications > [1] http://pkg-exppsy.alioth.debian.org/pymvpa/ -- .-. =------------------------------ /v\ ----------------------------= Keep in touch // \\ (yoh@|www.)onerussian.com Yaroslav Halchenko /( )\ ICQ#: 60653192 Linux User ^^-^^ [175555]
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