Openssl license exemption

Anything you want added or changed in future versions of ZoneMinder? Post here and there's a chance it will get in! Search to make sure it hasn't already been requested.
Post Reply
tibbs
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:22 pm

Openssl license exemption

Post by tibbs »

It embarrasses and dismays me to make this request, but circumstances force me to at least try.

I am the maintainer of zoneminder in Fedora. Fedora (or specifically, a couple of people involved with it) have decided to stop shipping libgnutls-openssl, which provides enough openssl compatibility for zoneminder to actually use gnutls. This implies that Fedora must now link against openssl directly if it wants to ship zoneminder. The problem, of course, is that the licenses of zoneminder and openssl are incompatible.

I have only two options here: I either drop zoneminder from Fedora entirely or I request that zoneminder add the standard GPL exception text to allow it to link against openssl. I'd be remiss if I didn't try the latter, so here I am. I don't even know if it's possible at this point to change the licensing, given the potential number of contributors. I suppose there is a third option: actually port the code to use gnutls natively, but that is, unfortunately, well beyond my ability.

Some info on the whole GPL/openssl crap, including the text of a recommended exemption: http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl ... e-gpl.html
The rather disappointing Fedora bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=460310

It would help me greatly if I could get an explicit response to this, even if it's "we're thinking about it" or simply a flat "no". Otherwise I'll have to drop zoneminder from Fedora in a few weeks.
tibbs
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:22 pm

Re: Openssl license exemption

Post by tibbs »

Or, maybe, I could try reading the code. It looks like all of this openssl/gnutls stuff is used for exactly one thing: the MD5 function, for hashing passwords. Is that really the case? If so, I suspect I'll just rip it all out and insert one of the public domain implementations, or call libmd.
mastertheknife
Posts: 678
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:32 pm
Location: Israel

Re: Openssl license exemption

Post by mastertheknife »

tibbs wrote:Or, maybe, I could try reading the code. It looks like all of this openssl/gnutls stuff is used for exactly one thing: the MD5 function, for hashing passwords. Is that really the case? If so, I suspect I'll just rip it all out and insert one of the public domain implementations, or call libmd.
Yes, it is used for the hashed authentication.

mastertheknife
Kfir Itzhak.
mcouture
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:15 pm
Location: US/Maine

Re: Openssl license exemption

Post by mcouture »

Any work in this area?

I'm using Fedora 17 and no more Openssl packages so Zoneminder is not longer working.... :cry:
mcouture
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:15 pm
Location: US/Maine

Re: Openssl license exemption

Post by mcouture »

bump
Post Reply