Re: Fwd: [gNewSense-users] gNewsense: CDRTOOLS- gNS bug 108

[Markus Laire]

Kevin Dean wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Joerg Schilling <address@hidden>
> Date: Nov 14, 2007 12:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [gNewSense-users] gNewsense: CDRTOOLS- gNS bug 108
> To: address@hidden
>
> "Kevin Dean" <address@hidden> wrote:
> > appears that the mkisofs utility is still licensed under the GPL
> > (presumably because it's not all your code?) but pulls code from
> > libscg (which is). It appears to me that this violates the terms of
> > both licenses if someone wants to distribute a binary. It appears as
>
> It does not violate any of the licenses.
>
> The CDDL allows a combination with any other license and the GPL
> does not prevent a GPL project from using non-GPL code.

I'm quite sure that FSF doesn't share this opinion.

Also, Debian-Legal's opinion (IIRC) is that Joerg Shilling should NOT be 
trusted when it comes to interpreting the GNU GPL.

So I'd recommend to double-check from FSF every claim of Joerg Shilling 
before trusting of them in gNewSense.

> > In your understanding, is this what happens? Does mkisofs in fact
> > combine GPL and CDDL code?
>
> No, mkisofs is a 100% GPL "work" that uses non-GPL libraries which
> is permitted by the GPL. It is OK because this way no derived work
> _from_ the GPL code is created.

I'm quite sure that FSF doesn't share this opinion either.

> > If this IS the case, what is the preferred way around this?
>
> There is no need to work around it as there is no problem. The
> distributions that asked their lawyers for checking the license
> don't see any problem.

I doubt this.

--
Markus Laire