From: Freek D. <sf_...@ma...> - 2004-02-02 03:56:58
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Hi, I'm an end user of netatalk. First of all, thanks a lot for the great work! It's *really* appreciated. I have a licence related question. I'm using Debian, and prefer to grab netatalk using the appropriate package [1]. However, this package is not allowed to link to OpenSSL (and thus DHX passwords are disabled) [2]. The reason comes from debian-legal (don't ask *me*, I'm an ignorant user): "GPL software linked against OpenSSL is not allowed in the main archive without either a license exemption from the upstream author of the GPL package, a change in the license of OpenSSL itself, or a clear legal precedent sustaining the OpenSSL FAQ's opinion on this point." [3] In short, the OpenSSL and GPL are incompatible (as was noted on this list in 2001), so you may link it yourself, but may not distribute it because the GPL forbids it, despite that both licences are considered "free". (Well, at least that's what people on debian-legal claim). Thankfully, both the OpenSSL FAQ [4] and the GPL FAQ [5] give a solution: Add an exception to the licence, stating that it really is OK with you to compile the whole bunch, link with OpenSSL and put it in a package. So, my question. Could you pretty please add the following statement in one of your legal-blahblah files for both the 1.6 and 2.0 version? I just copied it from gnu.org [5]: "In addition, as a special exception, the netatalk developers give permission to link the code of this program with the OpenSSL library (or with modified versions of OpenSSL that use the same license as OpenSSL), and distribute linked combinations including the two. You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify this file, you may extend this exception to your version of the file, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version." [1] http://packages.debian.org/netatalk [2] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=191790 [3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/debian-legal-200210/msg00173.html [4] http://www.openssl.org/support/faq.html#LEGAL2 (last paragraph of answer) [5] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs Thanks a LOT! And sorry to have distracted you from your coding with this silly question! Freek Dijkstra |