Folks,
I accidentally send this originally to gdal-dev instead of the
OSGeo4W list. I'd like to move the discussion to the OSGeo4W
list. I'm just cc:ing gdal-dev for notice.
Even Rouault wrote:
Le jeudi 11 novembre 2010 19:55:27, Frank Warmerdam a écrit :
Yes, this is a tricky situation.
In fact, the potential legal infringement doesn't come necessary only from the
side of the proprietary software. Even if you satisfy the licencing terms of
the former, the copyright holders of the GPL software could argue that the GPL
licence doesn't apply in that context.
Even,
Yes, this is the primary issue I was concerned when I mentioned GRASS.
The issue is not using GPL and proprietary stuff, but distributing the
aggregation of the two. Whether the fact of distributing a GPL program
(QGIS/GRASS/...) that uses a X/MIT library (GDAL/OGR) that has a X/MIT plugin
(OCI driver, ECW driver, MRSID driver) that links to a proprietary plugin (OCI
library, ECW library, MRSID library, ...) is illegal or not is probably in the
gray area of the GPL ( there is always debate on how linking and GPL work :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works
)
Honestly, if everything is installed as part of OSGeo4W it does not seem
like a gray area to me. It seems to be a clear violation of the GPL.
If the end user later adds a proprietary plugin of their own accord
then we are at least in a gray area or even in the clear. But it isn't
my wish to try and subvert the GPL.
4) And the last sentence of clause 2 of GPLv2 could perhaps apply to OSGeo4W
situation : "In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the
Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope
of this License. ".
Certainly I don't see a problem installing GDAL+proprietary plugins
and some GPL'ed software that doesn't actually link to GDAL. In this
case we only have aggregation.
So we could probably say that those proprietary plugins are out of the scope
of the GPL licence, but I'm not 100% this is a valid interpretation...
Of course, there are some possible ways to solve this without ambiguity :
a) either those proprietary stuff are licenced under a GPL compatible open-
source licence... (well one can dream...)
b) or the copyright holders of those GPL software agree to provide a special
exception clause to the GPL to allow it to be combined with proprietary
software. Not necessarily easy in the presence of multiple copyright holders.
One approach I have contemplated is having driver register some metadata
about their licensing class. In this way a GPLed application could choose
not to register proprietary drivers and/or proprietary applications could
choose not to register GPLed (broadly reciprocally licensed) drivers.
Best regards,
--
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmer...@pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Programmer for Rent
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