[LONG] (sub)licensing issue (fwd)

[Jerome Alet]

sorry for the forgotten CC...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 16:12:25 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Jerome Alet <jerome at cortex.unice.fr>
To: Tomasz Wegrzanowski <taw at users.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [LONG] (sub)licensing issue

On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 03:14:07PM +0200, Jerome Alet wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I've written a GPLed (not LGPLed) library which I know is currently used
> > in a software licensed under the BSD license, so this is clearly a
> > GPL violation since the other software license should be GPLed too.
> 
> You are wrong, it doesn't have to.
> As long as they keep their version open, there is no violation of
> licence. 

huh ?

reading :

http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#TOCWhatDoesCompatMean

if they redistribute both their source and mine as a whole then
the whole package MUST be GPLed whatever license they use 
for their own software.

if they don't redistribute my package as part of a bigger one which
contains their software and mine, then they can distribute their package
under BSD or closed. However in the closed case every recipient of their
package is not allowed to use my software, so their software won't work at
all (legally wise).

is that what you mean ?

> If somebody will ever take their code and close it,
> or if they will close it, they will be unable to legally use your
> library.

how will I know if they don't comply if this is the case ?

thanks in advance.

Jerome Alet - alet at unice.fr - http://cortex.unice.fr/~jerome
Fac de Medecine de Nice        http://wwwmed.unice.fr 
Tel: (+33) 4 93 37 76 30     Fax: (+33) 4 93 53 15 15
28 Avenue de Valombrose - 06107 NICE Cedex 2 - FRANCE