Re: FreeDOS and GPL-compatibility
Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>:
> Here's a teaser for all the licence enthusiasts here.
>
> FreeDOS includes components which are licensed under the GPL. Those
> components are currently built with a compiler from Borland, and
> consequently linked with the C library that comes with it. The licence
> of the library is of course not compatible with the GPL.
>
> The question is, can the C library from Borland be considered a part of
> the operating system (FreeDOS in this case)?
The GPL makes a "special exception" for components of the "operating
system on which the executable runs". I don't suppose FreeDOS runs on
an operating system, so I don't think you can use the exception.
That means you can't distribute the binaries at all unless the authors
of the GPL parts give you some additional permission.
> This will decide whether we can distribute FreeDOS binary packages as
> currently it requires the Borland compiler to build.
Why does it require Borland?
Probably you can use the Borland compiler without using the C library
that comes with it. You are probably using only a few simple functions
from the C library, anyway.
If you stop using the Borland C library then probably the binaries
could go into Debian's contrib (not main because you need a non-free
tool to build them).
Edmund
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