gnucash and GPLv3

[Derek Atkins]

karl at freefriends.org (Karl Berry) writes:

> rms and I are continuing to try to review all GNU packages wrt GPLv3.
> The LICENSE file for gnucash has the problematic statement:
>
>     However, some of the source files are licensed under Version 2 of
>     the GNU GPL specifically.
>
> So ... which files are these?  Is there any way to change things so that
> the bulk of gnucash can move to GPLv3+?  And, I guess the first question
> is whether there is any agreement (or objections) to doing that?  I
> recall from our previous exchange in 2007 that the relationship of
> gnucash and GNU is not exactly crystal clear.

There are a number of files, and dependencies, that are GPLv2-only..  I
don't think it's worthwhile to spend the time enumerating them, because
it's pretty much impossible to change them.

I haven't looked at GPL3 lately but last time I looked I considered it
onerous enough that I didn't want any of my code under it.  So yes,
there are objections.  But worse than that we'd have to go find all the
various copyright holders and get them to agree as well.

As for the relationship, you're right, it's not clear.  If you ask a
dozen people you'll probably get a couple dozen different answers.  I do
not believe there is any official relationship between GnuCash and GNU.
The work and copyright is definitely not assigned to GNU.

Thanks,

> Thanks,
> Karl

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
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