Request for help wording exception clause
Please CC me in your replies, as I am not subscribed to this list.
Could I have some help, please, wording a particular clause for GPL'd
software I am writing and eventually intend to package for Debian?
I would like to retain compatibility with an older mxDateTime which
is in Debian as python-mxdatetime 1.3.0. This is not a problem, as
the older version has a GPL-compatible license.
However, I would also like to permit users to use mxDateTime 2.0.2 which
uses a non-GPL-compatible, yet DFSG free license:
http://www.lemburg.com/files/python/mxDateTime.html#Copyright
http://www.lemburg.com/files/python/mxLicense.html#Public
The problem with this license is that it is derived from the old,
broken, Python license. That is, this clause forces the license to be
interpreted according to the laws of a specific jurisdiction, something
which RMS has clearly denounced as being non-GPL-compatible:
6. General
...
This License Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted
in all respects by the law of Germany, excluding conflict of
law provisions. It shall not be governed by the United Nations
Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods.
While this new mxDateTime is not yet (or may never be) in Debian, the
software I am writing may find its way onto non-Debian systems.
Therefore, to ensure that others do not have licensing problems with my
software and this later mxDateTime, I understand I need to grant users a
specific exception to "linking" my software (which is written in Python)
to this non-GPL-compatible Python library.
So in summary, I do not know how to word such an exception so that it
will be legally sound. Please advise.
Thanks,
Ben Armstrong for the Alibi development team http://alibi.nslug.ns.ca/
--
nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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