IRCd-Hybrid with OpenSSL support in Debian: licences conflictresolution

[Jon Lusky]

Changing the license is much easier said than done.  There are many
copyright holders in IRCD-Hybrid, many that predate the Hybrid project, and
changing the license would require approval by all of them.    

The simplest solution is for Debian to include OpenSSL as part of their base
operating system, then there would be no licensing conflict if users linked
against OpenSSL. However, if someone would like to volunteer to modify
ircd-hybrid so that it can use either OpenSSL or GNUTLS, that would be
great.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: hybrid-bounces at lists.ircd-hybrid.org 
> [mailto:hybrid-bounces at lists.ircd-hybrid.org] On Behalf Of 
> Aurélien GÉRÔME
> Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 11:15 AM
> To: hybrid at lists.ircd-hybrid.org
> Subject: IRCd-Hybrid with OpenSSL support in Debian: licences 
> conflictresolution
> 
> Hi authors of IRCd-Hybrid,
> 
> I am Joshua Kwan's co-maintainer of IRCd-Hybrid in Debian. By lack
> of time, Joshua has not been able to tend to the maintenance of
> IRCd-Hybrid. Therefore, I proposed my help he gladly accepted, I
> prepared and uploaded the last stable version 7.2.2 in Debian. See
> [1] for more details...
> 
> Joshua has made a great packaging work with IRCd-Hybrid. To ameliorate
> the packaging again, I would like to bring an issue to your attention
> concerning the OpenSSL licensing issue with IRCd-Hybrid current GPL
> licensing which you might be already aware of.
> 
> There is an incompatibility in the GPL (the licence of IRCd-Hybrid)
> and the OpenSSL Licence which does not allow Debian to redistribute
> IRCd-Hybrid with enabled SSL support. Taking that in account, Joshua
> has made the source package buildable by users wanting that support,
> but the resulting binary package is not the official package and,
> to my mind, it hinders the quality in Debian of such a great IRCd
> which is IRCd-Hybrid. :)
> 
> Hence, I propose you two solutions for the next stable release of
> IRCd-Hybrid, namely 7.2.3 (I suppose), to enable the SSL support by
> default in Debian.
> 
>  1. Your licence might add an exception to the GPL which allows
>     linking with OpenSSL.
> 
>  2. IRCd-Hybrid might be rewritten to use GNUTLS instead of OpenSSL.
> 
> The most simple solution would be the first one. Here are the 
> necessary
> steps to implement the first solution.
> 
>  1. Rename the LICENSE file to COPYING. It contains the pure GPL.
> 
>  2. Add the attached LICENSE file to your source code. It is
>     basically the beginning of all your source code files with an
>     exception statement. This file tells that your code is GPL with
>     an exception which allows linking with OpenSSL. Here is the text
>     of the exception:
> 
> ***
>   In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
>   permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
>   OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
>   individual source file, and distribute linked combinations
>   including the two.
>   You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects
>   for all of the code used other than OpenSSL.  If you modify
>   file(s) with this exception, you may extend this exception to your
>   version of the file(s), but you are not obligated to do so.  If you
>   do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your
>   version.  If you delete this exception statement from all source
>   files in the program, then also delete it here.
> ***
> 
>  3. Add to the beginning of all of your code source files this
>     exception statement.
> 
>  4. Add the attached LICENSE.OpenSSL to your source code.
> 
> I would be glad to answer any questions regarding this issue. 
> I hope we
> can work together so that IRCd-Hybrid becomes SSL-enabled in 
> Debian. :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> [1] 
> <http://packages.qa.debian.org/i/ircd-hybrid/news/20060901T220
220Z.html>
> -- 
>  .''`.   Aurélien GÉRÔME
> : :'  :
> `. `'`   Free Software Developer
>   `-     Unix Sys & Net Admin
>