GPL and LGPL not acceptable for Fedora!
Hans de Goede
j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl
Thu Aug 16 04:57:16 UTC 2007
Eric Sandeen wrote:
> Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
>
>> NOTE: Don't trust COPYING. Look at the source code itself.
>
> So, I own xfsprogs.
>
> source code itself only says things like:
>
> * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
> * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
> * published by the Free Software Foundation.
>
> but then the included COPYING file says:
>
> The library named "libhandle" and some specific header files (including
> <xfs/xfs.h>) are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
>
> All other components are licensed under the GNU General Public License.
>
> ... and then COPYING includes the text of LGPL2.1 and GPL2, specifically.
>
> I'll ask sgi for clarification but in the months while their lawyers go
> read the GPLv3, does it look like it would be appropriate to assume
> GPLv2 and LGPLv2 for now, based on the included COPYING file?
>
> (oh - and can my package be both GPLv2 and LGPLv2, or do I need to tease
> this apart into 2 packages now...)
>
The version of the COPYING[.lib] file is not relevant if the sourcecoe doesn't
contain a version its GPL+ resp. LGPLv2+
About GPL and LGPL. If libhandle is distributed as a seperate file under
/usr/lib, then the license tag would be:
License: GPL+ and LGPLv2+
If libhandle is statically linked into the binaries and not distributed
seperately in /usr/lib, then the GPL trums the LGPL and the license tag becomes:
License: GPLv2+
(The v2 comes from the LGPL code incorperated into the binaries)
If you distribute the lib under /usr/lib, you may want todo a -libs subpackage
for that and use "License: GPL+" for the main package and "License: LGPLv2+"
for the -libss and -devel sub-packages. The idea behind this tags is that
interpackage licensing issues can be checked by a script, using:
License: GPL+ and LGPLv2+
Is not going to help this script, resulting in people still needing to check
things manually.
Regards,
Hans (Who has 2 packages of his 150 left todo and then the License tagging
operation is completed for me).
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