Re: testing, testing
On Mon, 12 Jul 1999, Gary Kline wrote:
#> I think they would have these concerns unless the GPL'd bits
#> are LGPL'd instead. No flamewars please... a bit of clarification
#> first. You write X and put it under the BSD license. You can
#> link it against LGPL'd code (as a number of FreeBSD programs
#> do today). You cannot link X against GPL'd code (the BSD kernel
#> and a GPL'd device driver is one example) without first placing
#> the BSD bits under the GPL. Though I think it is possible
#> to relicense[1] the BSD code under another license, this is
#> usually frowned upon because some feel it to be violating the
#> license and others feel that it violates the intent of the license.
#
# Good grief, you've almost got to be a Philadelphia
# lawyer to sort this out.
This is one of the drawbacks of the GPL as I see it. It takes
a "Philadelphia lawyer" to understand every implication of it.
I'm not a lawyer. I'm a software developer in Northern Alabama
who happens to use FreeBSD and thinks Debian has a cool package
manager. This is merely my understanding of the license from
what I've read and heard so I could very well be wrong.
# Personally, I don't care if relicensing violate the
# "intent" of the license. As long as it isn't strictly
# illegal, it's legal.
Not likely to garner much support from any community with that
kind of attitude. "I'm going to do whatever I want with your
code regardless of whether you like it or not, so long as I'm
within the letter of the law". The law has yet to be written
on the GPL from what I've heard. And the BSD license doesn't
seem to hold much water either. :(
#> [1] The sticking point is usually the advertising clause
#> present on most of the BSD kernel bits. This definitely
#> doesn't mix well with the GPL.
#>
#
# I've read this; don't entirely understand the clause.
# ....And again, it may be a sticking point, but if it
# isn't a felony or otherwise illegal, I can live with
# a grey area.
#
# Another thought is for us to write our own Debian-BSD
# comprimise-license.
Please not another license. :) Seriously both licenses are
DFSG-free so you can use either one. I was just providing my
slightly FreeBSD-tainted veiw in response to Brent's Debian
outlook. I'm not going to prescribe the license. Your audience
will. Just remember that your audience will consist of many
of the same people that wrote the code originally. Make them
mad and they just might refuse to help you out with your cause
resulting in yet another code fork that none of us want/need.
-steve
Reply to: