RE: [Access-activists] New member with a big project

[Jamal Mazrui]

I realize there are other free licenses besides GPL, but thought that
GNU only promoted (via various resources) programs that were at least
GPL-compatible in their licenses.  That is my main question regarding
the Braille Blaster project.  I know that it can proceed with any
combination of licenses without GNU support.  Since such support could
be helpful, however, I am trying to determine whether the use of
Eclipse-licensed software is an obstacle.  What I have read on both
gnu.org and eclipse.org implies that it would be an obstacle, but if
there is conceptually something I am missing that reconciles these
issues, I want to understand it.

Jamal


-----Original Message-----
From: address@hidden
[mailto:address@hidden On Behalf
Of Jason Self
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 11:27 AM
To: address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden
Subject: RE: [Access-activists] New member with a big project

Jamal Mazrui wrote...

> What does it mean for a license to be "incompatible" with the GPL?

>From the FAQ at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html which should be
helpful in understanding:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatIsCompatible
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatDoesCompatMean

> How can a developer know that a project retains GPL compatibility?  I 
> thought it was by checking the discussion of specific licenses at
> > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

I think that's a good place to go for license compatibility information.

> I thought that list is based on an application of the relevant freedom

> principles.

It's a little bit of both: It documents both free and non-free software
licenses, but if you'll notice, the free software licenses are broken
down into GPL-compatible ones and GPL-incompatible ones.

The GPL is used by lots of free software programs so maintaining
compatibility with it is generally a good thing in my opinion, but just
because a license isn't compatible with the GPL doesn't automatically
mean it's non-free. Whether it's a free software license or not depends
on what the license says.