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SubjectRE: Reiserfs licencing - possible GPL conflict?
Date
> On Tue, 9 Nov 1999, David Schwartz wrote:
>
> > > you may not integrate it
> > > into any kernel (or if not added to a kernel, into any software
> > > system) which is not also a GPL kernel (software system)
> >
> > This is already prohibited by the GPL. In fact, most of the
> > difference between GPL software and PD software is that GPL software
> > may not be integrated with non-GPL software.
>
> No. GPL software may not be integrated with non-GPL-compatible software.
> That's a significant difference, when the no-ads BSD licence and the MIT
> licence are both GPL compatible.

Because those licenses are compatible, it is possible to distribute those
compatible pieces under the GPL, thus making it a 'GPL kernel (software
system)'. If it's compatible with the GPL license, it's compatible with the
reiserfs license.

As soon as you take something under the FreeBSD license and combine it with
something under the GPL license, the entire thing is then under the GPL
license. So there is no problem here.

> > I read it again, it says that it's distributed under the GPL,
> > and he's willing to sell exceptions to allow it to be integrated with
> > proprietary kernels.
>
> It's distributed under the GPL with one extra restriction. Which means
> that it's not under the GPL at all. The issue is not that selling GPL
> exceptions is bad. It's that Hans doesn't not believe that the GPL offers
> his enough protection, because it doesn't prevent anybody from linking it
> with, for example, a proprietary fork of FreeBSD (the code of which /is/
> GPL compatible).

This proprietary fork is either capable of being licensed under the GPL, or
it is not. In the first case, both a straight GPL license and the Reiserfs
license would allow the combination. In the second case, neither would.

> The licence doesn't stop anybody from using it in GPL-compatible userspace
> works either. What if someone make a database or news server in userspace
> from the code..

Now you lost me. What license is "the license"?

Hans is simply clarifying the GPL's terms briefly and stating what
exceptions he is willing to offer.

DS


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