gcc/ncurses ETA / Xfree issue

[Jeff Hodges]

On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 16:51 -0600, Nick Hudson wrote:

> On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 23:51 +0100, nestu wrote:

> 
> Speaking of XF86, why cant we bother with 4.4??  Is it due to the
> license change??  I guess I havent kept up with the peoblems they have
> been having.  I have been running 4.3.99.902 for while now with no
> problems.
> 
> Nick
Nick, thats the issue.  The XFree86 folks have included an extra clause
in the 1.1 version of their license that is incompatible with the GPL.
The extra clause states that any end user documentation included a
redistribution of the XFree86 code or binaries must include an extra
line saying that the code is from XFree team.  See http://www.xfree86.
org/legal/licenses.html clause 3)
The problem arises because the GPL specifically states in clause 6) that
"You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise
of the rights granted herein."   
It's not clear at first how these two collide but here's what I've
gathered.  Let's say we are writing a bit of GPL'ed code and would like
to use XFree86's xlibs, so we simply link their code to ours.  The
collision arises because the GPL states that linking to code is a
derived work, and that any code you link to must be GPL compatible.
Many licenses are not as "Free" as the GPL but are still compatible.
Unfortunately, clause 3) of the XFree86 license makes it GPL
incompatible.  It seems like a small problem, but the GPL was written
that way for a very good reason.  The GPL erred on the side of
simplicity and possibly "going to far" to prevent abuse.  

Lawyer stuff sucks :) 

-- 
	Jeff

Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where,
it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.
                -- Fran Lebowitz
http://jmhodges.pycs.net
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