Re: Question about the Classpath license

[Mark Wielaard <mark at klomp dot org>]

Hi,

On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 14:59 +0100, Clemens Eisserer wrote:
> Just because I am interrested: Is it allowed to create a proprietary
> JVM with classpath-libraries? I just do fully understand the
> exception.

There are currently runtimes/compilers created based on GNU Classpath
that are (partially) proprietary. This is not encouraged, but is a
compromise which we believe will attract more developers to contribute
to the free implementation of the core classes.

This is a gcj development list and not appropriate for legal or
licensing questions. Normally such requests should be send to
licensing@fsf.org.

Note that it was felt that the current distribution text is unclear.
The FSF would like to clarify the language so they get less of these
kind of questions. To get input we setup a wiki for giving input:
http://developer.classpath.org/licensing/
The FSF is committed to an open process for license releases and
discussions. So please make sure you participate.

Also note that this does not mean we are going to radically change the
license or that we will make all of GNU Classpath/libgcj only available
under the GPL. We will just make sure that it is clear when, where and
what source code should be distributed with works derived from and/or
based on GNU Classpath/libgcj. The clarified text will have the same
intent as the current license text, but be (hopefully) written more
clearly. So please add comments to this wiki about points that are
currently not clear.

And finally note that using a wiki for having an open discussion about
legal issues with the FSF is an experiment. We are not sure this is the
best way to handle these kind of discussions. There have been some
complaints that the process itself was not made more clear by using a
wiki. So the FSF might choose a different discussion method in the
future. (Input about the followed process and ways to improve it are
also appreciated - on the wiki, not on this list.)

Thanks,

Mark

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