Re: Eclipse 3.0 Running ILLEGALY on Kaffe

[Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu>]

Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> writes:

> If there actually is something going wrong, I'd really like for someone
> to spell out what it is in some fashion which addresses the above points.

Everything you said there seems reasonable to me (at first glance).
It's fine for the Kaffe developers and fine for the Eclipse
developers.  But it's not OK for Debian to distribute the a program
which contains a copy of the GPL'd Kaffe and a copy of the
GPL-incompatible CPL'd Eclipse, linked together.

Ignore the GPL FAQ for a minute and look at the GPL's 2b:

    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
    parties under the terms of this License.

The Debian OS contains Kaffe.  So the Debian OS as a whole must be
licensed under the terms of the GPL.  There are two exceptions to
this:

First, there's a separation exception:

  If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the
  Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate
  works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply
  to those sections when you distribute them as separate works.

This means that it's fine for Kaffe and Eclipse to be distributed
separately.  But it's not OK to throw them both on a CD and label it
"Debian OS", if running eclipse loads a program made out of copies of
Kaffe and Eclipse.

There's also the OS exception, which Debian can't use because it
distributes the whole OS -- even though JVMs are plausibly part of a
reasonable OS at this time.

-Brian

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu