FS#62030 - [pacman] GPL license conflict: Does not contain OpenSSL Exception
Attached to Project:
Arch Linux
Opened by Luke (Gaming4JC) - Saturday, 16 March 2019, 21:00 GMT
Last edited by Allan McRae (Allan) - Sunday, 17 March 2019, 00:44 GMT
Opened by Luke (Gaming4JC) - Saturday, 16 March 2019, 21:00 GMT
Last edited by Allan McRae (Allan) - Sunday, 17 March 2019, 00:44 GMT
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Details
Description:
pacman is licensed under GPL, but must be linked with OpenSSL to use --with-openssl as is the current default. Unfortunately, the GPL and the OpenSSL license are incompatible [1][2]. There are two possible solutions to solve this problem: - your software must be rewritten to use a crypto library besides OpenSSL, - or, your license must add an exception to the GPL which allows linking with OpenSSL. To add a license exception: 1. Add the attached LICENSE file to your code (COPYING in the case of pacman). This file tells that your code is GPL, with an exception which allows linking with OpenSSL. Here is the text of the exception: *** In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give permission to link the code of portions of this program with the OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including the two. You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete this exception statement from all source files in the program, then also delete it here. *** 2. Add the LICENSE.OpenSSL to your source code: https://www.openssl.org/source/license.txt [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html [2] https://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl.html |
This task depends upon
Closed by Allan McRae (Allan)
Sunday, 17 March 2019, 00:44 GMT
Reason for closing: Won't implement
Additional comments about closing: Compile using gnutls if this concerns you.
Sunday, 17 March 2019, 00:44 GMT
Reason for closing: Won't implement
Additional comments about closing: Compile using gnutls if this concerns you.
OpenVPN uses this phrasing rather than per-file licensing:
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OpenVPN is distributed under the GPL license version 2 (see Below).
Special exception for linking OpenVPN with OpenSSL:
In addition, as a special exception, OpenVPN Inc. gives permission to link the code of this program with the OpenSSL Library (or with modified versions of OpenSSL that use the same license as OpenSSL), and distribute linked combinations including the two. You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify this file, you may extend this exception to your version of the file, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
https://openvpn.net/license/
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Edit: Besides the fact pacman doesn't support GnuTLS, adding the exception is very trivial to implement and would solve the licensing conflict for users of this package manager.