[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Python 2.x and GPL (official blurb form 2.1a1)



On Wed, Jan 24, 2001 at 11:01:17PM +0100, calvin@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just leeched the new Python 2.1 alpha 1 release and discovered this
> comment on GPL-incompatibility:
> 
> [...]
> After Python 2.0 was released by BeOpen.com, Guido van Rossum and the
> other PythonLabs developers joined Digital Creations.  The intention
> is for all intellectual property added from this point on to be owned
> by the Python Software Foundation (PSF), a non-profit that will be
> created modeled after the Apache Software Foundation.  We will also
> attempt to get the ownership in previous versions transferred to the
> PSF, and straighten out the license to remove the GPL-incompatibility
> introduced by CNRI's Python 1.6 license.  In the interim, Guido van
> Rossum will own all new intellectual property, and no new license is
> added.
> [...]
> 
> So it seems that 2.1 will be GPL compatible :)
> 

Alas, not for certain ("We  will also attempt to get the ownership
in previous versions transfered").  Unless CNRI and BeOpen.com play
ball, there will still be slabs of non-GPL compatible code (all the
changes from 1.5.2 -> 2.0) in Python :(

> That is also an official answer to my previous concern: Python 2.0
> and 1.6 are not GPL compatible. Hrmpf.

If the IP transfer is made, these two releases will both become 
GPL-compatible.

-- 
Peter Eckersley                         http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pde 
(pde@cs.mu.oz.au)              TLI:  http://www.computerbank.org.au
<~~~~.sig temporarily conservative pending divine intervention~~~~>
GPG fingerprint: 30BF 6A78 2013 DCFA 5985  E255 9D31 4A9A 7574 65BC



Reply to: