nanogui: Licensing
Subject:
Re: Licensing
From:
Alex Holden ####@####.####
Date:
1 Jul 1999 08:21:27 -0000
Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9907010842000.12694-100000@www.linuxhacker.org>
On Wed, 30 Jun 1999, Greg Haerr wrote:
> A month ago we talked about licensing for nano-X, and basically
> agreed that MPL was the way to go. Where is the MPL license
> verbatim, do you know? I think I should read it and include it in some
> of the sources to make sure we're covered...
It's at http://www.mozilla.org/NPL/MPL-1.0.html
I'm still not completely convinced that we're allowed to directly link
MPL'ed code to GPL'ed code though (which is what the BSD people are
talking about when they say the GPL is infectious). Even ignoring whether
the GPL allows us to link to MPL code or not, the main problem as I see
it is that the reason we wanted the MPL was so that people can write
proprietory drivers, window managers, etc. of their own and link them
into the server without releasing the source to them, but still ensuring
that they contribute any improvements they make to our code back to us.
That sounds fine, the MPL covers it perfectly, and I can't see most people
having a problem with it. The problem is that the GPL is more restrictive
about this and _doesn't_ let you link any proprietory code to it and
distribute it, and currently we only have permission to license David
Bell's code as GPL, not MPL. We're going to have to ask David if he's
prepared to let us relicense it as MPL or not (I think he's still lurking
on the list- any comment David?), and if not, go back to the drawing board
on licensing. A generic dynamic linking mechanism is a possibility, but
RMS has stated (with reference to Linux kernel modules) that in his
opinion even that is a breach of the GPL, but that it's up to the authors
of the code in question whether they allow it or not. It's a shame that
open source licenses have become such a religious issue when all we want
to do is write freely available code.
--------------- Linux- the choice of a GNU generation. --------------
: Alex Holden (M1CJD)- Caver, Programmer, Land Rover nut, Radio Ham :
-------------------- http://www.linuxhacker.org/ --------------------
