Re: Bacula and OpenSSL (original) (raw)

Le jeudi 12 juillet 2007 à 16:41 +0200, Kern Sibbald a écrit :

How do we get there? It seems to me that there are a number of alternatives:

  1. Convert Bacula to use gnutls. One Debian user is working on this, but it is not a small nor an easy project. And though it is something I consider very worthwhile for Bacula to work with gnutls, it doesn't resolve the problem of using Bacula with OpenSSL.

This looks like a good thing to do in the long term anyway, and not only for licensing matters.

  1. You recently mentioned to me that GPL v3 may be a solution. Like Linus, I don't see any reason to switch to GPL v3, but if using GPL v3 makes Bacula compatible with OpenSSL AND all distros are happy with that, it seems to me to be an easy solution. I know that GPL v3 is compatible with the Apache license, but can you confirm whether or not it is compatible with whatever OpenSSL uses? I would also appreciate having Debian's legal view on this question.

The GPL v3 is not compatible with the OpenSSL license. However, section 6 states: A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be included in conveying the object code work. Apart from the very bad wording, I think the OpenSSL libraries can be perfectly considered as part of the "System libraries".

This flaw of the GPLv3 is at least good for something. If your GPL software can now be included in the HP-UX or AIX distribution, it can also be included in Debian.

Please note that this is only applicable if your third-party contributions are licensed under GPL v2 or later.

  1. Barring item 2, it seems to me that the only solution is to eliminate all third party software from Bacula and change the license to less restrictive one that permits Bacula being linked with any Open Source software.

GPL + OpenSSL exception would be enough to be sure. You may have more luck convincing copyright owners to grant an OpenSSL exception than to accept an entirely new license.

Cheers,

.''. : :' : We are debian.org. Lower your prices, surrender your code. . ' We will add your hardware and software distinctiveness to - our own. Resistance is futile.

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