If that's the source of this issue, then I think there's a misunderstanding about the problem the OpenSSL exception is addressing. The problem was that the OpenSSL licence required additional conditions be imposed on the binary as a whole, even though openssl itself was a system library. https://spdx.org/licenses/OpenSSL.html Specifically the advertising and redistribution clauses. The OpenSSL exception is to make GPLv2 compatible with the OpenSSL licence's additional restrictions, not the other way around. There is still a considerable body of opinion that thinks the system exception covers this case as well, but just in case, people added the OpenSSL compatibility exception to GPLv2. The goal of changing OpenSSL to Apache-2 was to remove those additional restrictions and make the library behave like a normal linked library from a licensing point of view. The Apache-2 licence imposes no additional restrictions on the binary as a whole, which is why no exception is necessary. Specifically the patent retaliation and indemnity clauses which some people think cause the cut and paste incompatibility don't apply to the binary as a whole, only to the Apache2 pieces.
Yes. That is my understanding as well. But I think where we have been told and see the problem different is that the GPL2 covers the whole binary and also the Apache2 licensed parts. And then the restrictions become a problem. So you are right in the sense that the Apache2 is just a normal library to link for most purposes, the GPL licenses are special in the way that they want to cover the whole source code/binary. Sometimes this feature of the GPL is called viral by opponents of the license.
Mark McLouglin (Red Hat and Openstack) did an excellent analysis at the time the licence change was announced explaining the issues (unfortunately it seems to have gone from gnome but the wayback machine still has it): https://web.archive.org/web/20220204042851/https://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl.html
That is a nice analysis but I do not see any mention of a change in the situation for Apache2.
Arne _______________________________________________ Openvpn-devel mailing list Openvpn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openvpn-devel
