[j-users] Proposed ABCL license change: last call

[Peter G. <pe...@ar...>]

I'm officially back from vacation, and I'd like to take care of the
ABCL license change this week if possible. Please let me know if there
are any remaining issues.

I've included my original message on this subject below, for reference.

If I don't hear anything to the contrary, I plan to go ahead with text
adapted from the GNU Classpath LICENSE file, as quoted in my message
below.

Thanks.

-Peter

----- Forwarded message -----

   From: Peter Graves <pe...@ar...>
     To: arm...@li...,
         arm...@li...
     Cc: Doug McNaught <do...@mc...>,
         Sunil Mishra <sm...@ai...>
Subject: [j-devel] Proposed ABCL license change
   Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 16:58:30 -0700

Getting ready for the first release of ABCL as an independent entity
(which may or may not occur in the near future; I'm not promising
anything), I'd like to propose a change to ABCL's license.

The proposed change will apply to ABCL only; j (the editor) will
continue to be licensed under the GPL, as has always been the case.
(For the purposes of this discussion, think of ABCL as "the files in
the src/org/armedbear/lisp directory".)

The new license for ABCL will be the GPL, as before, with an added
clarification and special exception.

I plan to adapt the text of the clarification and special exception
from similar text used by the GNU Classpath project.

This is the relevant part of the LICENSE file in the GNU Classpath
distribution:

    The software in this package is distributed under the GNU General
    Public License (with a special exception described below).

    A copy of GNU General Public License (GPL) is included in this
    distribution, in the file COPYING. If you do not have the source
    code, it is available at:

        http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/

    Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules
    is making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms
    and conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
    combination.

    As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give
    you permission to link this library with independent modules to
    produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these
    independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting
    executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet,
    for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the
    license of that module. An independent module is a module which is
    not derived from or based on this library. If you modify this
    library, you may extend this exception to your version of the
    library, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to
    do so, delete this exception statement from your version.

As applied to ABCL, this means that you can link ABCL with independent
modules to produce an executable that you can then license however you
please, provided you meet the licensing requirements of any other code
you include or link to.

In other words, software that uses ABCL "as is" does not have to be
GPLed just because it uses ABCL.

Note "as is": this exception does not cover modifications you might
make to the ABCL code itself.

Such modifications are covered by Section 2 of the COPYING file (in the
root directory of the j distribution).

Bottom line, if you modify the ABCL code, you're making a derived work,
and the derived work must be licensed under the GPL. (The next-to-last
sentence of the special exception quoted above lets you decide whether
or not to extend the special exception to the derived work that you've
thereby created.)

So, it's OK to modify ABCL and use the modified ABCL in non-GPLed
software, as long as you release the source of the modified ABCL under
the GPL (with or without the aforementioned special exception).

Of course, I've been called many things but never a lawyer, so my
account of this should be taken with a grain of salt (maybe more).

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks for your support.

-Peter



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