On 04/10/2012 04:42 PM, Patrick Matthäi wrote:
b) Older but problematic licensing problem. The openssl license is not
compatible with GPL{1,2,3}, so on glusterfs(!) needs to add an licensing
exception.
See: http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html
Point: OpenSSL
Bear in mind that this is only the first step to separate out a
libglusterfs-client library licensed under LGPL for third parties to use
to write extensions to GlusterFS. The intent is to use OpenSSL APIs only
in code that resides in the LGPLed library.
If that doesn't address your concerns——
The link you reference indicates that it's okay to use OpenSSL "... if
upstream gave a license exception for this...".
Offhand I'd say that upstream, i.e. Red Hat and Gluster.org, are giving
a license exception; we probably ought to explicitly indicate that
somewhere before we ship GA. (This link
http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl.html has suggestions
for how to do that if we need to.)
Going a bit deeper, The OpenSSL FAQ referenced in the above document
indicates that things get 'fuzzy' "...on operating systems that don't
normally include OpenSSL." and "...the GPL does not place restrictions
on using libraries that are part of the normal operating system
distribution)."
But Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and pretty much all the distros in wide use
do ship OpenSSL; I think we're on pretty solid ground in that respect.
—
Kaleb
