Simple Proposal

[Etienne M. Gagnon]

Hi all.

OK. Nobody wants (or has the time) to go into license wars, and infinite 
discussions.  So I am proposing here (for non-AWT code) to:

1- Add a small clarification to the current Classpath Exception, and
2- license Classpath under the LGPL+exception (instead of GPL+exception).

Why change from GPL to LGPL?  Because class path is a library. It would be nice 
for some other Free software developers to be able to take parts of files in 
Classpath and includes those parts in their own Free libraries distributed under 
the "pure" LGPL.  This is not possible under the current Classpath license [One 
can only "link" with the class files generated by compyling Classpath; one 
cannot directly use parts of the source code in non-GPL libraries].

Now, for RedHat/Cygnus and other ebmedded systems developers, this change should 
have no impact whatsoever, as the linking exception remains the same.  So, it 
shouldn't be difficult to pass through (I hope).  On the other hand, it would be 
a very welcome change by potential/future LGPL libraries developers that could 
reuse some of Classpath code.

In a separate message [in the thread "Re: Re (3): testing before a release"] I 
propose to agree on the clarification in (1-).  Please, take the time to say if 
you agree to that clarification independently from agreeing on the 
GPL+exc->LGPL+exc change.

Here is the complete text for a potential LGPL+exc.
--- BEGIN ---
GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1, or (at your option)
any later version.

GNU Classpath 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 Lesser General Public License
along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.LESSER.  If not, write to the
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 USA.

As a special exception, if you link this library with other files to
produce an executable, this library does not by itself cause the
resulting executable to be covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License.
This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why the
executable file might be covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License.

Note that people who make modified versions of Classpath are not
obligated to grant this special exception for their modified versions;
it is their choice whether to do so.  The GNU Lesser 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.
*/
--- END ---

I hope I am being realistic by thinking this is a small enough change, 
acceptable for everybody, including embedded systems developers?

Thanks for your time reading this message.

Etienne
--
Etienne M. Gagnon                    http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
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