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Re: license question ..



Dear Jean-François, 

You are under  the classical issue around the  OpenSSL license and GNU
General           Public          License.           (check          :
http://www.openssl.org/support/faq.cgi#LEGAL2)

So you  can add  the classical  exception (like for  example :  LyX is
doing that for  linking against the xforms library)  but this approach
is not the best (add complexity on the legal side). 

So you  can ask the current  copyright holder to add  an exception for
your project or to change to a license compatible with the GNU GPL. 

Another approach,  it's to check if  you can use the  DES package from
the GNUTLS version (an openssl alternative under GNU GPL). 
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/gnutls.html

Hope this helps. 

adulau

--			      Alexandre Dulaunoy -- http://www.foo.be/
--         http://pgp.ael.be:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x44E6CBCD
"People who fight may lose.People who do not fight have already lost." 
							Bertolt Brecht



On Sat, 19 Oct 2002, Jean-Francois Dive wrote:

> hi guys,
> 
> I've got a licensing issue with my new package isakmpd.
> 
> Okay, so here we go:
> 
> - isakmpd is from openbsd and so is under BSD license.
> - isakmpd will use for some times (but plan to drop it in the future) freeswan kernel code
>   for ipsec implementation.
> - isakmpd need libdes (same license as openssl, as it is the same person who wrote it).
> 
> As far as i understand, if i link against any freeswan lib (which i can avoid), but use any freeswan
> header (which define the kernel interaction), or use any freeswan tools in the isakmpd packaging, isakmpd
> becomes GPL in this case of utilisation. 
> 
> To be clear, my interaction  with freeswan are:
> 
> - need kernel interface headers (pfkey socket type).
> - need some freeswan user-space binaries to attach a physical interface to an ipsec interface.
>   --> need the ipsec user space command.
> 
> For libdes, i need it full stop and as far as i can see, it is not GPL compatible, so could not link against
> it, Angus Lee (freeswan maintainer) told me i could get an explicit authorisation from the libdes author
> for inclusion in isakmpd without restriction (as freeswan does)..
> 
> So, my main problem is that isakmpd becomes GPL, and this make it incompatible with the libdes license.
> 
> As a solution, i can rewrite any bit, but libdes is really optimized and a rewrite'd not make me feel
> doing something better than what exist (and 'd add another source of bugs). 
> 
> Finally, isakmpd will interract with the standard linux kernel as soon as ipsec is supported (which should
> happen soon).
> 
> thanks for any hints on how to solve this, or if there are no problems, helping me to understand the licensing
> arcana.
> 
> JeF
> 
> ps: please CC me as i am not subscribed to the list
> 






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