DB design document

[Steve Greenland]

On 15-Dec-00, 14:10 (CST), Bill Gribble <grib@gnumatic.com> wrote: 
> Rest assured that the gnucash developers are just as concerned about
> this stuff as you are.  We absolutely do not want to use any component
> that makes any problems for distributing gnucash under straight GPL,
> nor do anything that would cause Debian or other free software
> distributors to consider gnucash to be non-free in any way. We cannot
> and will not be cavalier about software licensing.

To clarify a few points:

1. I didn't mean to imply that the gnucash developers don't care about
these issues. I just wanted to make sure that the problem doesn't arise
inadvertantly.

2. With respect to "...distributing gnucash under straight GPL", I
and most (perhaps all) Debian developers have no problem with adding
exceptions to linking with non-GPL compatible libraries, particularly
free libraries such as OpenSSL. IIRC, RMS has stated he doesn't have a
real problem with doing so, so long as all the copyright holders agree
(although I'd guess he'd prefer otherwise). The problem is not that
OpenSSL is non-free (in a DFSG sense), the problem is that its license
and the GPL don't mix. Debian wouldn't put GnuCash in non-free, it
wouldn't be able to distribute it at all. (I'll add "I'm pretty sure" to
that last statement, as I certainly don't speak in any official way for
the Debian project, I'm just going on previous discussion.)

Your certainly welcome (even encouraged) to bring the topic up on
the debian-legal mailling list for comments and discussion. It would
certainly be a shame to re-implement something when it can be easily
avoided.

Steve

-- 
steveg@moregruel.net