Re: Freeradius and Debian

[Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>]

Steve Langasek <vorlon@netexpress.net> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2002 at 03:07:15PM -0800, Walter Landry wrote:
> > Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org> wrote:
> > > I'm not presenting a coherent enough argument to convince debian-legal
> > > I'm right; I'm too lazy to do so and it would involve significant
> > > research on my part.  Instead I'm trying to convince interested
> > > parties that the fact that there exists a library that is GPL
> > > compatible and that has the exact same interface may interact with the
> > > anti-linking argument.
> 
> > If there is a GPL compatible library that we can run and build the
> > program with, then the resulting object file contains no GPL code.  If
> > we distribute it to a user, and that user decides, at runtime, to link
> > to some other library, then Debian is in the clear (as is the user,
> > unless the user distributes the aggregate).
> 
> And if it's linked at runtime with the GPL-incompatible library not
> because the user has made a choice, but rather because that's where our
> package dependencies lead, is Debian still in the clear?

If Debian provides the original, GPL compatible library, and the user
chooses to install another library and remove the compatible library,
then Debian is in the clear.  Debian can even advertise that this will
work and make it relatively painless by the usual dpkg mechanisms.

But Debian has to provide the entire compatible library, which has no
links to the incompatible library.

Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu