Hi Chris and everyone,
In case you can't remember I'm the silent employer of Ben Caradoc-Davies and now Rini Angreani contributors to the app-schema work in GeoTools and Geoserver.
Whilst I don't get to program anymore so don't contirbute to the development lists (though I do read them) I do get to look at GPL license agreements and recently had to look at the Exception clause you are seeking. You will find an explanation and relevant wording for the Exception clause for both GPL v2 and v3 at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs
I've pasted the GPL v2 version below. You should replace the sections in brackets with the real information and consider whether or not the section in {} braces is appropriate (it may not be possible to get the source code for the linked in library under its licenses terms).
I hope you find this helpful.
I'd also like to send a thankyou to all of those involved in reviewing the work that Ben and Rini have been contributing to Geoserver and Geotools. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Rob
GPL v2 with Exception clause:
Copyright (C) [years] [name of copyright holder]
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses>\.
Linking [name of your program] statically or dynamically with other modules is making a combined work based on [name of your program]. Thus, the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole combination.
In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders of [name of your program] give you permission to combine [name of your program] with free software programs or libraries that are released under the GNU LGPL and with code included in the standard release of [name of library] under the [name of library's license] (or modified versions of such code, with unchanged license). You may copy and distribute such a system following the terms of the GNU GPL for [name of your program] and the licenses of the other code concerned{, provided that you include the source code of that other code when and as the GNU GPL requires distribution of source code}.
Note that people who make modified versions of [name of your program] are not obligated to grant this special exception for their modified versions; it is their choice whether to do so. The GNU General Public License gives permission to release a modified version without this exception; this exception also makes it possible to release a modified version which carries forward this exception.
Dr Robert Woodcock
Auscope Grid - Director, Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Exploration and Mining
ARRC (Australian Resources Research Centre)
26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington WA 6151, Australia
PO Box 1130, Bentley WA 6102, Australia
Ph: 08 6436.8780 | E: Robert.Woodcock@anonymised.com | W: www.csiro.au
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Holmes [mailto:cholmes@anonymised.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2009 12:54 AM
To: Justin Deoliveira
Cc: Jeffrey Hawkins; geoserver-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Geoserver-devel] GPLv2 and Apache Compatibility
Yeah, I've stalled a bit on collecting the agreements, but we do have
them for a majority of contributors.
Do you have examples of the Exception to the GPL license Jeffrey? What
projects have done that, what is the text of the exception? Is it just
to combine with other open source licenses?
GPLv3 upgrade would be easier, as I believe GeoServer is licensed for
GPLv2 or later, which means you don't actually need everyone to agree
(but of course we'd do that, we just wouldn't need to be sure to have
contributor agreements for everyone).
Chris
Justin Deoliveira wrote:
Hi Jeffrey,
There is currently a process going on to gather contributor agreements
to assign copyright to a single organization (TOPP). Once completed we
will have the freedom to modify the license in order to resolve any of
the legal issues.
Chris (CC'd) is heading up that process, and can report on progress.
Chris, what are your thoughts?
Jeffrey Hawkins wrote:
GEOServer is comprised of both GPLv2 and Apache licensed software. In
the legal view these licenses are incompatible... Has the GEOServer
Team considered adding an Exception to the GEOServer GPL License to
allow for combining with Software that is licensed under different
Terms. This would eliminate the whole question/issue of
compatiblity... Assuming you can get all the GEOServer Copyright
Holders to Agree to do this... Other Projects have done this to address
this issue. Another Alternative would be license under GPLv3, as FSF
has indicated the Apache and GPLv3 are compatible, but a number of
Commercial Users would be troubled with this due to Commercial fear of
GPLv3..
Your thoughts/feedback/comments are requested.
Thanks,
Jeff
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