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Message-ID: <20121001091613.GA20056@debian>
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2012 13:16:13 +0400
From: Aleksey Cherepanov <aleksey.4erepanov@...il.com>
To: john-dev@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: GPL license is not free at all
On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 10:35:35PM -0400, Rich Rumble wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 9:01 PM, Alexander Cherepanov <cherepan@...me.ru> wrote:
> > No, it's not GPL sucking our energy, it's non-free unrar. *If* we are an
> > open source project then there is no place for this unrar in our project
> > no matter which license other files are under.
> Well unrar, appears to be it's own license... albeit a short one. It
> lacks all the "legalese" and all the CYA typically found in
> licenses... but to me it does seem free to use/distribute the more
> I've read it. While RAR is not-free and proprietary, and unrar is
> "stripped" out of the rar code (according to the readme), however it
> appears to be it's own entity and have it's own separate license from
> RAR.
> To me http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatIsCompatible tells
> me that they can be used together. RH and others not providing unrar
> may be due to longstanding or outdated licensing issues with previous
> unrar lib's??. I don't see why unrar is non-free, even when it's
> counterpart most certainly is not free. There are ways forward rather
> than debating back and forth, I just don't seem to get the fuss on
> this one after I've read the unrar license a few more times. I'll go
> read the GPLv2 and get a closer look at that. To comply with the unrar
> license you have to put paragraph 2 into you code or license
> statements, which has been done, and to comply with the GPL you need
> to provide source and attribution, which we do as well. That's an over
> simplification but it seems to fit. Unless after re-reading the GPLv2
> I find anything different this is where my .02 cents ends.
> -rich
"... but cannot be used to re-create the RAR compression algorithm
...": this part of unrar license makes it non-free because it limits
freedom.
GPL v2 section 4:
4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. ...
GPL is a copyleft license: it forces you to redistribute derivative
work under the same license. In GPL v2 it is expressed in section 4.
It means that you could not add any additional limitation of freedom.
Adding unrar with its limitation violates this.
Does it make sense for you?
Thanks!
--
Regards,
Aleksey Cherepanov
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