Ethereal-dev: Re: [ethereal-dev] Ethereal and H.323 dissector possible license solution
> On Thu, Sep 14, 2000 at 12:00:32PM +0200, andreas.sikkema@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > As you all (should?) know, I have released an H.323 dissector
> > for Ethereal. The dissector makes heavy use of MPL licensed code
> > and Ethereal is off course GPL. From what I know of GPL I cannot
> > link my H.323 dissector with Ethereal.
>
> The page at
>
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html
>
> lists the MPL amongs the licenses that are not compatible with the GPL.
>
> > I have to create a plugin
> > and then it's possible to use the H.323 dissector legally.
> >
> > In a "Letter to the editor" in the current Linux Weekly News
> > ( http://lwn.net/2000/0914/backpage.php3 (last letter) )
> > I read the following:
> >
> > "And if you want to link with a GPLed program, get one side to
> > grant an exclusion for the other side. Instant legality
> > without the "viral" nature."
> >
> > So, my question is, can I get such an exclusion for my H.323
> > dissector, which is Open Source?
>
> I don't know whether this would just require Gerald to grant the
> exclusion, or whether it also requires that the exclusion be granted by
> anybody else who's put their own name in a copyright notice in Ethereal
> code; I don't think I've actually put my name in a copyright notice, I
> think I just did things such as
>
> <snip>
>
> but, if not, I'm certainly willing to grant the exception.
>
> (Fortunately, code from 4.4-Lite is now covered by the modified BSD
> license - the removal of the advertising clause renders it compatible
> with the GPL, as per the page I cited, so dropping the BSD checksumming
> code into Ethereal, to use when checksumming the payload of an IP
> datagram (i.e., to use when checking the validity of ICMP/UDP/TCP
> checksums) is OK.)
As someone who has yet to sumbit code because I'm waiting for permission
to release under GPL (and in fact at all) I am aware I have not made
any real contibution to ethereal but I'll throw in my 2c anyway!
The problem with GPL + exception licences is that they are rarely if
ever GPL compatible themselves. Therefore changing ethereal to a
GPL + exception licence makes it impossible to import GPL code to
use in the dissectors.
IF (and no I have not checked) ethereal aleady includes GPL code
already imported into the project in theory it should also be removed
if the licence were changed.
An oft mooted proposal is to contact the author of imported code for
permission. This works but imposses extra weight on the maintainer.
BTW Andreas: is the code you have used likely to be dual licences in
the near future?
Cheers
Daniel
--xx--
--
Daniel Thompson (STMicroelectronics) <daniel.thompson@xxxxxx>
1000 Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol, BS32 4SQ. 01454 462659
Statistics: Where mean is normal and deviation is standard.
