[sane-devel] Last call for new backends

[Henning Meier-Geinitz]

Hi,

On Tue, Apr 15, 2003 at 10:54:00PM +1000, Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> Oh. I'd looked at the license in packaged into /usr/share/doc/sane and it
> just said GPLv2. Now the source says:

The file "LICENSE" that you quote is also installed to
/usr/local/share/sane. COPYING contains the original text of the GPL.

>     Backend libraries are protected by the GNU General Public License (see
>     file COPYING), but as an exception, it is permissible to link against
>     such a library without affecting the licensing status of the program
>     that uses the libraries.  For details, see the copyright notice at the
>     head of the backend files (e.g., backend/dll.c).
> 
> Isn't that just the LGPL?

It's similar. As far as I know, when SANE was born, there was no LPGL.

> Anyway, I have no objections but obviously this needs to be organised
> properly and agreed to by people. Is it actually a requirement though? It
> doesn't appear to be so.

I think currently all backends use GPL+SANE clause. Pure GPL may be
critical if a distribution links to a non-GPL software.
So if possible, I'd prefer to keep GPL+SANE clause for the backends.

Bye,
  Henning