[Debian-med-packaging] Re: r-cran-optparse_1.0.2-1_amd64.changes REJECTED]

[Trevor Davis]

Hi Thorsten,

The Free Software Foundation (generally considered
an expert on all things GPL-compatible)
disagrees with your interpretation of the GPL
and have explicitly approved recent Python licenses
as GPL-copmatible (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Python).
Note that the "Python License" they have on their website
(http://directory.fsf.org/wiki?title=License:Python2.0.1) is the full
Python license stack which includes the historical modified CNRI and
BEOPEN licenses
and not merely the PSF License Agreement at the top.

13 years ago the FSF did make CNRI change the wording of an earlier
Python license

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#PythonOld
http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:Python1.6b1

because it had an overly strong "governed in Virginia" clause but I'm using
the version of the CNRI which was weakened enough to satisify the FSF lawyers.

I'm not a copyright lawyer but I'm inclined to go with the judgment of
the Free Software Foundation on this one.  The CNRI and BEOPEN licenses are
ugly but must be included if you combine Python project code with a GPL-licensed
project ( https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundationLicenseFaq ).

Best,

Trevor



> Hi Trevor,
>
> the CNRI snippet says that it is from Python 1.6.1. This is not compatible
> to GPL because of paragraph 7, which puts any disputes under the "federal
> intellectual property law of the United States (...) the law of the
> Commonwealth of Virginia". This is an additional restriction that is
> not allowed by the GPL.
>
> The BEOPEN snippet contains the same paragraph (6) for the "law of the
> State of California".
>
> So from my point of view you can not mix code under these CNRI and BEOPEN
> licenses with GPL code.
>
> The PSF snippet from Python 2.6.2 does not contain such paragraph and is
> fine.
>
>    Thorsten
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