transitive GPL (exim4, OpenSSL, mySQL and others)
Hi,
This is a follow-up for my blog entry
http://blog.zugschlus.de/archives/585-exim4-vs.-OpenSSL-vs.-GnuTLS.html
which unfortunately didn't result in the license advice that I was
hoping to get. I am therefore asking debian-legal for opinions. Please
note that I am neither a native speaker of english nor am I very
fluent in english legalese.
exim4 is GPL and links, in the exim4-daemon-heavy flavour, against
GnuTLS, the mySQL client library, libpq and some other libraries.
exim4 has an explicit exemption to allow linking to OpenSSL; and I was
told that MySQL's FOSS exemption clause says the same in legalese for
OpenSSL. libpq is already linked against OpenSSL.
GnuTLS has a truckload of technical issues which - in sum - raise my
motivation to change exim4 to use OpenSSL tremendously. I am simply
sick of having to handle GnuTLS incompatibilities.
Now my questions:
(1)
Is it ok to change exim's SSL library to OpenSSL in the current setup
without violating the GPL for some of the library currently in use
(2)
Will it be a violation of the GPL to link exim to a
GPL-without-OpenSSL-exemption-clause library in the future?
(3)
Is this violation maybe already happening by virtue of linking
indirectly to OpenSSL via libpq?
I am also interested to hear about other license aspects that I might
move myself into when changing exim to use OpenSSL instead of GnuTLS.
Greetings
Marc
--
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Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834
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