From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What license to use for Emacs libraries? Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:53:06 -0400 Message-ID: References: <877fosmhmv.fsf@mbork.pl> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1439934827 19679 80.91.229.3 (18 Aug 2015 21:53:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:53:47 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 18 23:53:39 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRop8-00012x-Ih for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:53:38 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59691 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRop7-0000wB-TE for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:53:37 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41850) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRoow-0000ur-6V for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:53:27 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRoos-00007W-W5 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:53:26 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:36890) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRoos-00006L-Q0 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:53:22 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRoom-0000lq-Ob for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:53:16 +0200 Original-Received: from 75-119-254-147.dsl.teksavvy.com ([75.119.254.147]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:53:16 +0200 Original-Received: from monnier by 75-119-254-147.dsl.teksavvy.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:53:16 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 26 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 75-119-254-147.dsl.teksavvy.com User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:NWihKvX12Lp+SmgMVFM7GE28sY4= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:106690 Archived-At: > Does that mean that releasing Emacs libraries under GPLv2 is illegal? Pretty much, yes. Since they necessarily link to Emacs's own code which is GPLv3+, you have to use a license that's compatible with GPLv3+. Note that GPLv2+ is one such compatible license (as opposed to GPLv2). > I did a cursory check, and it seems that all libraries built-in in my > Emacs are GPLv3, but some other are not: No, they're GPLv3+ (most licenses out there implicitly say "this version or any later version of it", whereas the GPL is more strict and you have to explicitly say "GPLv2 or later"). > for instance, my copy of Icicles has GPLv2, and some code on EmacsWiki > has GPLv2. If it's stritcly "GPLv2 and no later" then it's probably an error. > Does that mean that GitHub is a part of a sinister software-patent > conspiracy or something? That wouldn't be a surprise, now, would it? Stefan