[Gluster-devel] glusterfs-3.3.0qa34 released

[Kaleb S. KEITHLEY]

On 04/10/2012 04:42 PM, Patrick Matthäi wrote:
> b) Older but problematic licensing problem. The openssl license is not
> compatible with GPL{1,2,3}, so on glusterfs(!) needs to add an licensing
> exception.
> See: http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html
> Point: OpenSSL

Bear in mind that this is only the first step to separate out a 
libglusterfs-client library licensed under LGPL for third parties to use 
to write extensions to GlusterFS. The intent is to use OpenSSL APIs only 
in code that resides in the LGPLed library.

If that doesn't address your concerns——

The link you reference indicates that it's okay to use OpenSSL "... if 
upstream gave a license exception for this...".

Offhand I'd say that upstream, i.e. Red Hat and Gluster.org, are giving 
a license exception; we probably ought to explicitly indicate that 
somewhere before we ship GA. (This link 
http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl.html has suggestions 
for how to do that if we need to.)

Going a bit deeper, The OpenSSL FAQ referenced in the above document 
indicates that things get 'fuzzy' "...on operating systems that don't 
normally include OpenSSL." and "...the GPL does not place restrictions 
on using libraries that are part of the normal operating system 
distribution)."

But Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and pretty much all the distros in wide use 
do ship OpenSSL; I think we're on pretty solid ground in that respect.

—

Kaleb