RE: [hpoj-devel] Bug#147430: hpoj: Linking against OpenSSL licens ing modificat ion (GPL)
Hi. After some back-and-forth discussion with our attorney, I would like to
propose the following OpenSSL exception statement to be applied to the
HP-copyrighted portion of the hpoj code which needs this (libptal and the
libraries and applications that link to it, but not ptal-mlcd):
In addition, as a special exception, Hewlett-Packard Company
gives permission to link the code of this program with any
version of the OpenSSL library which is distributed under a
license identical to that listed in the included COPYING.OpenSSL
file, and distribute linked combinations including the two.
You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects
for all of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify
this file, you may extend this exception to your version of the
file, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to
do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
I would then include the entire OpenSSL license in the file
"COPYING.OpenSSL" in the hpoj package. Mark, please forward the LICENSE
file distributed with the OpenSSL version that Debian provides, so I can
make sure it's truly "identical" to what I think it is. Hopefully they
don't change the wording of their license on a regular basis. :-)
I would apply a slightly different statement to the LICENSE file, which
indicates that the exception only applies to certain source files in the
package, and at the end stating, "If you delete the exception statement from
all source files in the package, then also delete it here."
xojpanel is the only non-HP component in the hpoj package which needs an
OpenSSL exception statement. For xojpanel, I would like to propose use of
the "standard" FSF exception template from
"http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WritingFSWithNFLibs";, unless
Andreas and Joe would really prefer the above version:
In addition, as a special exception, Andreas Fester and Joe
Piolunek give permission to link the code of this program with the
OpenSSL library (or with modified versions of OpenSSL that use the
same license as OpenSSL), and distribute linked combinations including
the two. You must obey the GNU General Public License in all
respects for all of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify
this file, you may extend this exception to your version of the
file, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to
do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
I'm proposing this alternative for xojpanel because it's more "standard"
(FSF-recommended), and to avoid my having to go back and get everybody's
permission again if I need to update the LICENSE.OpenSSL to reflect license
changes in the upstream OpenSSL. For all practical purposes, the least
permissive notions from both versions would have to be satisfied for
xojpanel, since it links to libptal, and that might provide a small form of
"insurance policy" in case one of the two forms ends up with an undesirably
permissive loophole.
Is this solution OK for everybody? Andreas and Joe, I'll need approval from
both of you in to go ahead with adding this to the xojpanel source code.
Also Andreas, what exact copyright statement do you want made on your behalf
there? Currently as exemplified by
"http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/hpoj/hpoj/apps/xojpanel/xojp
anel.cpp?rev=1.6&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup" it says "Copyright
(C) circa 1998 Andreas Fester". If nothing else I would suggest removing
the word "circa", and looking back at the timestamps in the old tarballs it
appears that xojpanel made its debut in version 0.2 with source files dated
November 18, 1999, so your copyright year may need to be changed to 1999.
In case I don't hear from Andreas (who seems to have been very quiet lately)
or Joe within the next few days, then I will release hpoj-0.90 with the
exception statement applied only to the HP-copyrighted code as described
above. Later after I've gotten approval from both of them I will post a
patch on the hpoj website that amends the license statement accordingly.
David
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