Re: How to make a non-GPL Org-mode exporter?

[Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>]

On Monday, 27 Jul 2015 at 18:01, Marcin Borkowski wrote:

[...]

> And what if I explicitly want people to be able to use my code in
> a proprietary software?  Or if I just want to use the "Unlicense"?  Or
> if I don't want to use GPL on principle?  (And if I still consider Emacs

You are perfectly able to do all of the above with *your* code.  What
you cannot do is "unlicense" my code which I may have released under
GPL.  This is the crux.  I, and others, have not released our codes to
be used however *you* see fit.  We have released them under GPL which
was our decision.

If your code is not based on mine (or any other code released under
GPL), then by all means do what you want with it and give whatever
rights away you wish.  If, however, it is based on GPL, you cannot do
so.

If you write a new exporter based purely on the documented API for use
with org, you can distribute that perfectly fine with whatever licence
you wish, AFAIK.  If you take an existing exporter and modify it for
your target, then you cannot do other than release with GPL.  Likewise
for your tutorial: if it refers to org documentation (e.g. link to Worg
or (info)), that is fine; if it includes org documentation, you are back
to having to release using GPL.

(I'm not a lawyer -- the above is based on my understanding of the
intent of those of us using GPL as part of org.)

I'm off to make dinner now... :-)

cheers,
eric
-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 25.0.50.1, Org release_8.3beta-1293-g985420