openssl vs. GPL question

[Dafydd Harries <daf@muse.19inch.net>]

Hi,

I have a package Alexandria, written in Ruby, which will depend on a
new library in the next version. This library, ruby-zoom, is an LGPL Ruby
binding of libyaz. libyaz links to OpenSSL and is, as far as I can tell,
under a 2-clause BSD licence. Everything fine so far.

But it seems to me that it will be impossible for Alexandria, which is
under the GPL, to use ruby-zoom legally as, by doing so, it will be
linking against OpenSSL, which is under a GPL-incompatible licence. Am I
right in thinking so?

My understanding of this issue is based on reading this thread:

	http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/10/msg00113.html

If there is indeed a licence problem here, I can see two main solutions:

 - Try to get libyaz in Debian to link against GnuTLS instead of
   OpenSSL.

 - Get the maintainer of Alexandria to make an exception for linking
   against OpenSSL.

I notice that the Tellico package, which is GPL, already links against
libyaz. Is this a licence violation?

-- 
Dafydd