On Thu, Sep 15, 2005 at 03:12:42PM -0400, Alan DeKok wrote:
Frank Cusack <fcusack@fcusack.com> wrote:
You really must have explicit license terms in order to include sql_ippool (or any contrib software).
For one-line patches?
I think the difference is that a one-line patch creates a derivative work, which the GPL requires be licensed under a GPL-compatible license. And possibly it is too trivial to carry its own copyright. (Someone mentioned recently that the US copyright rules don't recognise trivial programs...) A whole FreeRADIUS module could be argued that it is not a derivative work, but a distinct work intereacting with FreeRADIUS via a defined interface, and therefore subject to copyright on its own. The GPL may still affect distribution of this module (I believe it has something to say on this matter, but can't be bothered quoting chapter and verse) but it doesn't really affect copyright. And while copyright is held by someone else, the licensing must be explicit. (And to be distributed with FreeRADIUS, it must be GPL-compatible I believe.) And then this introduces another module that must be considered in granting an OpenSSL exception to the GPL, as Globe.net may not wish to grant such an exception, and I again can't be bothered to look up to see if we can derive a work from GPL code and license it under GPL + OpenSSL exception without the copyright holder relicensing it. I think this is why projects such as Asterisk (I believe?) requires contributions be assigned copyright to the project, so they don't need to check with everyone who's ever touched the codebase if they need to relicense it. They also use this for dual-licensing the code to commercial users who do not want to deal with the GPL. (I'm not saying Asterisk does it better, or worse. Just mentioning what they do to deal with this problem.) -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Paul "TBBle" Hampson, MCSE 8th year CompSci/Asian Studies student, ANU The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361) Paul.Hampson@Pobox.Com Of course Pacman didn't influence us as kids. If it did, we'd be running around in darkened rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive music. -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.1/au/ -----------------------------------------------------------