[Kaffe] can the classpath project be used with Kaffe.

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Feb  9, 1999, Moses DeJong <dejong at cs.umn.edu> wrote:

> On 9 Feb 1999, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> On Feb  9, 1999, Moses DeJong <dejong at cs.umn.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> > I was just reading up on the classpath project and it seem that they
>> > are using the LGPL while Kaffe uses the GPL. Does this mean that classpath
>> > code can not be used in the Kaffe project?

>> Nope, LGPL is compatible with GPL.

> What exactly are you basing this statement on? I am no lawyer but my
> impression of the GPL is that it does not allow any linking to code
> that is not also covered under the GPL (or equivilant license).

The GNU LGPL says:

  3. You may opt to apply the terms of the ordinary GNU General Public
License instead of this License to a given copy of the Library.  [...]

Furthermore, the GPL is compatible with any other Free Software
license, since its only point is that you must make the source code
freely available whenever you distribute your program.  You can do
that for LGPLed, BSD-like licensed and public domain code, so these
can be used together with GPLed programs.

> This also brings up another "license" question. It also seems like using
> JNI to "link" to the Kaffe JVM with code that is not covered under the
> GPL would not be allowed.

According to the GPL, only if you distribute a binary that is actually
linked with the library, because the GPL only covers the distribution
of programs, not what a user can do with a copy he's got.  Anybody is
free to run non-GPLed code with Kaffe, even if that involves JNI code, 
but it would be nice if this was explicitly stated in the license
terms, so as not to leave any space for doubt.

> Tcl is covered under a
> "BSD like" free license. I checked the README for Kaffe but it does
> not contain any "exceptions" to the GPL.

No exceptions are needed.

> I would think two common exceptions that you would want to allow are
> "linking" to kaffe using JNI and allowing people to run non GPLed
> .class file.

These are not really needed, but it would be nice to do it, in order
toavoid useless debates in the future.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva  http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~oliva  aoliva@{acm.org}
oliva@{dcc.unicamp.br,gnu.org,egcs.cygnus.com,samba.org}
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP, Brasil