[Pkg-zfsonlinux-devel] [zfs-discuss] zfs-linux_0.6.2-1_amd64.changes REJECTED

[Kenneth Henderick]

"this package appears to violate the spirit of the GPL". Well, if by "this
package" they refer to the use of CDDL, it's more or less true what they
state. In short; the GPL wants open source at all costs, and all code using
GPL code should be GPL'led as well, while the CDDL is much more permissive.
Since CDDL is file based, you might use any other license for your own code
that cooperates with CDDL code, including a commercial or non-open source
one. And that's something that doesn't stroke with the GPL "spirit".

However, I don't immediately see why this should cause issues with shipping
it with Debian, but IANAL.


On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 11:00 PM, Paul Richards Tagliamonte <
ftpmaster at ftp-master.debian.org> wrote:

> FYI: The ZFS package(s) have "finally" been reviewed and, unfortunately
> (but not
> completely unexpected) been rejected. So ZFS directly in/from Debian
> GNU/Linux is
> yet "some months" (and I use that loosely! :) away.
>
> This is the letter we have received about the issue:
>
> ----- s n i p -----
> Hello, ZFS on Linux maintainers,
>
> At a recent ftpteam meeting we discussed this package, and what to do
> about it.
>
> Our consensus was that this package appears to violate the spirit of the
> GPL at
> minimum, and may cause legal problems. Judges often interpret documents as
> they're
> intended to read, hacks to comply with the letter but not the intent are
> not
> looked upon fondly. This may be a hard thing for technical folks to
> accept, but
> in legal cases one usually isn't dealing with technical people.
>
> As such, this package has been rejected with the following notes:
>
> * Please take care to fix your naming issues. Please talk with the
> kFreeBSD folks
>   on how to best handle the namespace. The kFreeBSD folks had these names
>   first, it's up to them how they're used.
>
> * We recommend that the DPL put a question to our lawyers, providing a
> full and
>   complete background on the situation. (We are happy to help reviewing it
> before
>   it gets sent off). We will defer judgement on the legality of
> distributing ZoL
>   in Debian to them.
>
> Thanks,
>  Paul, on behalf of the ftpteam
> ----- s n i p -----
>
> Personally, I'm wondering about "this package appears to violate the
> spirit of the GPL".
> I'm not sure what they mean exactly there....
>
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to zfs-discuss+unsubscribe at zfsonlinux.org.
>