[Python-Dev] (libffi) Re: Copyright issue (original) (raw)

Anthony Green green at redhat.com
Fri Jan 27 18:11:48 CET 2006

On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 18:03 +0100, Thomas Heller wrote:

[I've added python-dev to cc:]

Anthony Green <green at redhat.com> writes: > On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 17:08 +0100, Thomas Heller wrote: >> Anyway, another question is: Is aclocal.m4 needed at all for building >> (or maybe for regenerating the configure scripts), or is it optional? > > aclocal.m4 is required, but is only used as a build-time tool. The fact > that aclocal.m4 is distributed under the GPL should have no impact on > the licensing terms used for software built using aclocal.m4. If I understand correctly this means that the Python source distribution would have to be GPL licensed, while the built programs would be able to use another license. I'm pretty sure this kills the whole idea (to include libffi in python).

I guess I wasn't clear. aclocal.m4 is just a tool used to build libffi. Like your C compiler. Bundling it with the Python source distribution should have no impact on the licensing of Python itself, since it isn't really part of the resulting Python binary - just like your C compiler isn't.

AG

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