On Fri, Jun 15, 2001 at 04:10:24PM +0900, Junichi Uekawa wrote: > I see that at www.gnu.org, the old BSD license is not compatible with > GPL, but I cannot understand why. The old BSD license has this clause: "* 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software * must display the following acknowledgement: * This product includes software developed by the University of * California, Berkeley and its contributors." The GPL has this clause: " 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License." The other 3 clauses of the original BSD license impose no restrictions on the licensee that the GPL does not already. However, the old clause 3 *does*. The GPL makes no mention of requiring people to put boilerplate messages in their advertising materials, therefore this is a "further restriction on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein." This is because a project containing code under both licenses would impose both sets of license restrictions on people. The GPL, however, is not miscible with license that impose any more restrictions than it does itself. Thus, the old BSD license is not compatible with the GPL. Note that all code with the old BSD license and copyrighted by the Regents of the University of California, has been categorically relicensed with the old clause 3 removed. See <ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/4bsd/README.Impt.License.Change>. -- G. Branden Robinson | Measure with micrometer, Debian GNU/Linux | mark with chalk, branden@debian.org | cut with axe, http://www.debian.org/~branden/ | hope like hell.
Attachment:
pgpxQsJMP3tTG.pgp
Description: PGP signature