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

Re: Is SystemC license compatible with the GPL ?



Hi Nathanael, and thanks for taking time to read the license ! 

Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com> writes:

> Anyway, to answer *your* compatibility question, we would need more
> information about exactly how this works; the GPL has a system library
> exception, the LGPL has its linking exception, and GCC has its own special
> exceptions.

I didn't see any mention of the LGPL in GCC's license. 

Well, what  to say more.  My code links  against both SystemC  and GCC
(the compiler  itself, not  the C/C++ standard  library). I'd  like to
find a license for my code that allows me to distribute the wole. 

It  seems I  can distribute  my  code in  source form  under any  free
license, with scripts downloading and installing SystemC and GCC. It'd
be nice if  I could distribute all together, but  this doesn't seem to
be possible.

> If you can get the SystemC creators to agree to a GPL dual-license, that
> would probably be better.

SystemC's  original   author  (Synopsys)   is  a  company   selling  a
proprietary software,  which is a  concurrent of mine. I  don't expect
them to be really cooperative on that point ...



Now, but this is not really the point of my mail :

> 2.5 contains a weird line:
> "Recipient agrees that Recipient shall not remove or alter any proprietary
> notices contained in..."
> 
> What the *heck* is a "proprietary notice"?

Well, I suppose this is just a copyright notice. 

> 2.6b is insanely non-free, requiring that the "Recipient" help OSCI register
> its trademarks.  (?!?)  I wouldn't use the program just due to that.

It's non-free, but  this is the license of the  trademark, not the one
of  SystemC.  Many  free  software  (all  free  and  commercial  Linux
distro ?) have a non-free license for their trademark. 

If you don't like it, 's/systemc/another word/' will do it.

-- 
Matthieu



Reply to: