savannah-hackers
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of nethack-el


From: Loic Dachary
Subject: Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of nethack-el
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 11:03:39 +0100

 > bit confused on this point.  I never thought of patches as being
 > licensed, which is why I thought that we had no choice.

        A small patch (roughtly < 15 lines of code) does not have to
worry about licenses. Larger patches are usualy licensed under the same
license as the original code but nothing forces them to be that way. Of
course, licensing under an incompatible license does not make sense. But
it's always the author choice.

 > So the patch can/does carry a license, and (assuming the patch is GPL v2)
 > when it is applied by the user, the result will be a license
 > incompatibility?  And consequently, the user who applies the patch
 > will be unable to redistribute the modified source?

        Yes.

 > >    :-) I hope this clarifies things. Frankly I never quite
 > > understood why the Nethack team is refusing GPL v2. From the
 > > discussions I had with them it seems more like superstition rather
 > > than true reasoning. Oh well.
 > 
 > It all seems a bit frustrating to me...I see the spirit of both
 > licenses as being the same: "Do with the code whatever you want, but
 > don't deprive anyone else of the same privilege".

        It is frustrating. In fact it's also a frustration for anyone
wanting to include GPL v2 code in Nethack, be it a patch or a library.
Nethack is probably the best example of the troubles you run into when
you omit the "or any later version" in the license notices. A years pass,
it becomes a real pain to everyone.

 > We would very much like to have nethack-el hosted on Savannah, but
 > would not like to create any license incompatibilities elsewhere.
 > Given what you say, we can't really do both :(.

        Exactly. 

        Cheers,

-- 
Loic   Dachary         http://www.dachary.org/  address@hidden
12 bd  Magenta         http://www.senga.org/      address@hidden
75010    Paris         T: 33 1 42 45 07 97          address@hidden
        GPG Public Key: http://www.dachary.org/loic/gpg.txt



reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]