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Re: Change from BSDL to GPL?



On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 04:41:40PM -0400, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:
> On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 11:00:11AM -0700, Bill Stouder-Studenmund wrote:
> > 
> > It turns out that Berkeley has changed the licesne on 4.4BSD-Lite, and you 
> > can now mix it with GPL. So find a copy of 4.4BSD_Lite that has been 
> > changed according to Berkeley's instructions and you're set.
> 
> Maybe you can, and maybe you can't.  One of the clauses of the GPL
> prohibits "any other restrictions" -- you tell me just how another
> legally binding license can be non-null and yet impose no restrictions.

The point of contention between GPL and BSD licensing I've heard discussed 
was the advertizing clause, because it was a restriction in addition to 
the ones that the GPL had.

To answer your direct question, all of the discussions I have read 
regarding the GPL indicated that "any other restrictions" referred to 
restrictions of a type unlike the other ones imposed by the GPL. Thus the 
advertizing clause was a restriction unlike those of the GPL (and more 
restrictive), and thus wasn't OK.

My recollection is that I have, I believe it was 7 years ago, read
BSD-licensed (w/o advertizing clause) source files in the Linux kernel. 
Such a thing would not be legal given the interpretation of "other 
restrictions" you imply above. Now, I realize that what I saw or was told 
was not necessarily legal (it could have been in error). However, at some 
point, arguing an interpretation that disagrees with common usage gets 
difficult.

Take care,

Bill

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