Openssl license exemption
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:13 pm
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.
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.
