[wxPython] Licensing. Grrr.

wxPython Users
1

The Python license is incompatible with the GPL because of paragraph 6:

6. This License Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in all respects by the law of the State of California, excluding conflict of law provisions. ...

RMS and his lawyers state that the specification of a legal venue is incompatible with the GPL.

···

At 06:26 PM 2/15/2001, Shikora, Seth wrote:

Hi,

  This is the part I don't get. I've looked over the python license at
http://www.python.org/2.0/license.html . It pretty much says do whatever you
want with it. I don't see how that could be incompatible with a GPL license.
Is there a discussion of python licensing that I could look at to get a
better grip on how python and wxPython can be used/distributed?

===========================================================================
Jonathan M. Gilligan <jonathan.gilligan@vanderbilt.edu>

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2

Doesn't paragraph 6 refer to the python license and not the license to the
application using python? If you GPL your sofware and happen to ship it
with Python, the python license would not apply to your software, therefore
IMHO (I'm not a lawyer, so don't sue me, ...) no incompatibility exists.
OTOH, there might be a problem if Guido wants to include GPL'd software
within the standard batteries included python distribution.

···

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan M. Gilligan" <jonathan.gilligan@vanderbilt.edu>
To: <wxpython-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
Cc: <wxpython-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 7:19 PM
Subject: RE: [wxPython] Licensing. Grrr.

The Python license is incompatible with the GPL because of paragraph 6:

6. This License Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in all
respects by the law of the State of California, excluding conflict of law
provisions. ...

RMS and his lawyers state that the specification of a legal venue is
incompatible with the GPL.

At 06:26 PM 2/15/2001, Shikora, Seth wrote:
>Hi,
>
> This is the part I don't get. I've looked over the python license at
>http://www.python.org/2.0/license.html . It pretty much says do whatever

you

>want with it. I don't see how that could be incompatible with a GPL

license.

>Is there a discussion of python licensing that I could look at to get a
>better grip on how python and wxPython can be used/distributed?

===========================================================================

Jonathan M. Gilligan

<jonathan.gilligan@vanderbilt.edu>

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3

Thanks for all the input everyone.

It sounds like Robin/wxPython, wxWindows people, and Python/BeOS don't
care if I GPL it. I was concerned with stepping on any of their toes,
mostly.

I know RMS's problem with Python2.0 is that it's governed by Calif.'s
laws.

Soooooo - I'll GPL it and let RMS's lawyers sort it out if they
care. :wink:

···

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4

Hi all,

Thanks for all the input everyone.

It sounds like Robin/wxPython, wxWindows people, and Python/BeOS don't
care if I GPL it. I was concerned with stepping on any of their toes,
mostly.

I know RMS's problem with Python2.0 is that it's governed by Calif.'s
laws.

Soooooo - I'll GPL it and let RMS's lawyers sort it out if they
care. :wink:

I just wanted to point out something that you might find useful - you can
actually distribute your software under a slightly modified GPL. That is,
you can distribute your software under the GPL, but include a specific
exception that essentially says it is okay to "link" your software with
any implementation of Python under the Python license (include link to or
copy of Python license here).

This is the case that arose over the whole KDE/Qt issue when Qt was only
available under the "QPL" or "Qt Public License". Basically, KDE was pretty
much all GPL'ed, but it all relied on Qt - and Qt was only available under
the QPL, which wasn't compatible with the GPL. RMS and FSF, etc. said that
to "fix" KDE and make it all wholesome and legal, every developer holding
copyright over part of KDE would need to include a specific exception in
their licensing, saying "it's okay to link this software with the Qt
library". See the Doxygen license for an example -
http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

While it might seem bizarre and nitpicky in the extreme, it is moderately
important to do this sort of thing. Due to these licensing quibbles, KDE
was simply not made available as part of Debian Linux for a long long time.
Various non-free, closed source software (eg. Netscape Communicator) _was_,
but KDE was not - because technically, it was not legal to distribute.

Don't let your software end up in this sort of painful licensing nitpickery.
Include a clear exception and everyone'll be happy. :slight_smile:

Hope that helps,

Pete.

···

On Thu, Feb 15, 2001 at 10:27:10PM -0500, robc wrote:
--
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

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