[Opensim-dev] Violating the GPL by looking

[Kyle Hamilton]

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 11:10 AM, Michael Wright
<michaelwri22 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Well, we couldn't accept any GPL code, as that isn't generally compatible
> with BSD, in the sense that BSD code can't use GPL code (unless the gpl code
> has a FLOSS exception). And also we have third party libraries that just
> aren't GPL compatible, like physx.

Ummm... I should point out that which everyone forgets.  If the main
code will run without the presence of the GPL'ed code, but the main
code can detect the GPLed code and use it if it's available (you know,
kinda like the module system that opensim currently has, that dotnet
has integrated and well-documented support for -- probably
specifically to bypass this issue in its entirety), then there is no
taint.  There's also no requirement in that case for the GPL code to
have an FLOSS exception.

A friend of mine is using this to make use of the lzo.net library
without tainting his entire project, which he's keeping closed-source.

(Also, there are two BSD licenses.  The first one, with the "obnoxious
BSD advertising clause", is not GPL-compatible and thus requires the
FLOSS exemption in GPLed code.  The second, without that advertising
clause, does not require the exemption.)

> There has been talk about having code (say modules ) under say the LGPL, but
> it was decided that its easier to just have all the code in opensim svn
> under BSD. That doesn't stop people creating modules that are under a LGPL
> license, just that at this time we aren't including such code in our svn.

So create a second svn that's specifically marked GPL, and do a weird
voodoo svn extern rite to make it so people can deal with it without
issue.

Meh.

-Kyle H