[kaffe] Using kaffe(GPL2) with other DFSG-compat licenses

[Grzegorz Prokopski]

W liście z wto, 06-08-2002, godz. 05:50, Dalibor Topic pisze: 
> 
> --- Jim Pick <jim at kaffe.org> wrote:
> > > Seriously - IMHO we need good legal advice here
> > from somebod that
> > > understands Java. It should be stated publicly and
> > once forever
> > > so that we didn't have troubles later.
> > Agreed.  At the end of this process, we should have
> > a FAQ.licensing.
> there used to be one on kaffe.org check it out here:
> http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.kaffe.org/FAQ.html
> 
> Citation:
> Can I run proprietary Java applications and native JNI
> libraries under Kaffe?  
> 
> Yes, you can. Kaffe's choice of GPL does not affect
> your ability to run any Java or JNI-based code that
> you could run on any other Java virtual machine.

I am starting to have bad thoughts about all of this when
it comes to Debian - here's why:

1) The FAQ of FSF's site claims clearly that we're in
"the worst case" with kaffe's GPL license
2) Debian is the distro that really values what FSF and
RMS say
3) Debian is the distro that removed all of the KDE
because it was GPL code linked to non-free lib which
violated the GPL. Even if the fact was, that 99.99%
of the authors, when asked - would say they allow
their GPLed apps to be linked to non-free QTlib.

IANAL, but It seems that at lest for Debian we may have
"the worst case" here. For commercial distros it is matter
"can be sued or not?" while for Debian it is rather somewhat
"ideological" and "ethical" thing.

If that will be confirmed - what's the way out?
1) Don't use kaffe for GPL-incompatible programs (that's the easy
one)
2) Work to relicense kaffe - my understanding is, that if kaffe had
"linking exception" as gnu classpath - everybody would be happy
(the authors and the users) or maybe even LGPL when it comes to this?

The steps to be done (eventually):
- first relicense everything that is copyrighted by Transvirtual -
probably the hardest and most important part
- contact the authors that contributed their code to kaffe (after
BSD license changed to GPL) and who can be identified - ask them for
permission for relicensing (I could help here when/if previous step
is done) I hope that CVS logs will help to find names and emails.
- use caffe everywhere for everything (can you hear "world domination"
in these words? ;-) freely and legally

OK, ENOUGH. I'd like to suspend the discussion for some time now.
I think everybody said everything already, no need to repeat.

We need some real advice here and that's really great that Jim
offered to get it for us. Thank You Jim.

Best regards

					Grzegorz B. Prokopski

PS: A couple of thoughts.
- you should include that old BSD-style license into your code too.
I suspect that a lot of code is still covered by this license and
changing "official" license to sth else didn't automatically relicenced
these parts.
- no matter what the lawyer will say - IMO the idea of slight license
change (for new code) is good. Even if effectively you will be still
GPL.

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