DB design document

[Steve Greenland]

On 14-Dec-00, 16:06 (CST), Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU> wrote: 
> Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net> writes:
> 
> > I don't think you can't use OpenSSL - tbe license is not compatible with
> > the GPL. Whether distribution is actually a violation of the GPL depends
> > where you fall on the dynamic linking question.
> 
> OpenSSL is a shared library; we are completely free to link against
> it.

So you fall on "linking a shared library is not creating a derived
product" side of the question. That's fine. I'll just point out that
RMS disagrees. I personally tend to disagree as well, but I admit that
it reasonable for others to argue otherwise. I do *not* want to start
such an argument here, btw; gnu.misc.discuss is the appropriate place,
although it's already been beat to death.

> As for the license, there are actually two licenses, and we can use
> either one.

This is incorrect -- you must meet *both* licenses:

  LICENSE ISSUES
  ==============

  The OpenSSL toolkit stays under a dual license, i.e. both the conditions of
  the OpenSSL License and the original SSLeay license apply to the toolkit.
  See below for the actual license texts. Actually both licenses are BSD-style
  Open Source licenses. In case of any license issues related to OpenSSL
  please contact openssl-core@openssl.org.

(This is a different meaning than many other programs (e.g. Mozilla) use
when they say "dual license". If the OpenSSL authors mean "either" then
they need to say "either", not "both".)

And the second license says you can't create derived works including GPL
code. (More accurately, it says you can't relicense the code under the
GPL, which the GPL requires for derived works.)

And while saying "let the user download OpenSSL separately" works for
your initial distribution, it will make it impossible for third parties
(e.g. Debian) to distribute GnuCash, because they also distribute
OpenSSL.

Of course, the whole problem can be solved by changing GnuCash's license
to include an OpenSSL exception ("This program is released under the
GPL with the additional exemption that compiling, linking, and/or using
OpenSSL is allowed.") To do this, you need to get permission from all
the copyright holders.

All of the above may look like I'm trying to create problems for the
GnuCash project,but I'm actually trying to prevent them. If you don't
consider these issues before you write the code, many others will bring
them up, and it will be much harder to resolve. This is exactly the same
problem as the KDE/Qt problem of recently, with KDE in serious denial.

Steve


Steve

-- 
steveg@moregruel.net