[Box Backup] Exclude lists

[Ben Summers]

On 21 Feb 2005, at 21:08, Chris Wilson wrote:
>
>> As I understand it, I can release the source under as many licenses 
>> as I want. So the existence of a GPL version would not restrict my 
>> ability to release it under a BSD license. However, it would stop me 
>> from incorporating changes from the GPL version into the BSD version, 
>> which could lead to a situation where there is the choice of either 
>> forking the project or forcing me to choose a different license for 
>> the entire project.
>
> I was hoping that it wouldn't be necessary to relicense or issue a new 
> license for the Box source, since as far as I can tell, the BSD 
> license is (almost) a superset of the GPL. I am happy to add any extra 
> conditions that you like to the GPL in order to make my code legal to 
> link against yours. Alternatively, your express permission to 
> redistribute the code in a GPL application and a GPL'ed source package 
> would be enough (for me).

You can link against a BSD project from a GPL project, no problem. It's 
compatible that way. It's the other way which isn't compatible -- if a 
modification is made under GPL then it cannot be accepted into the BSD 
project.

Adding extra conditions would mean that it would no longer be the GPL, 
which could kind of defeat the object.

>
>> It might be easier for everyone if the first stage of your build 
>> process extracted the necessary files from a normal unmodified 
>> release?
>
> I could do that, but I think it would be a pain for automated build 
> processes. I hope that we can come to an agreement that allows me to 
> distribute the GPL'ed Boxi code and your Box code in the same package.

I don't think I can give you permission to release the Box code under 
the GPL. However, as I read the BSD license, there isn't a problem with 
just including a lump of BSD code in a distribution as a separate 
entity. I suggest you ask someone who knows!

Or perhaps you could require that Box Backup was built, and then link 
in the .a files which are produced as part of the build process? Quite 
a handy set of libraries.

>
>> Getting that far means you've solved most of the problems you will 
>> face.
>
> Thanks, I hope so, it's been a long and hard struggle to get this far 
> :-)

I'm sure the end result will be worth it.

Ben