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Topic: GPL compatibility? (Read 2584 times) previous topic - next topic
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GPL compatibility?

Now, I could be wrong, but as I read it, this license is potentially GPL compatible:
Code: [Select]
Copyright (c) 2001-2003, Peter Pawlowski
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 
Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


The act of licensing is the "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met" portion.  The conditions below only say the list of conditions and copyright notice must be included.

It sure looks like any of his code can be included with just the copyright notice, disclaimers, and conditions, none of which exclude modifications and GPL licensing on top.  Would it be permissible to distribute modified code with "portions Copyright © 2001-2003, Peter Pawlowski" ?

IANAL, anything I'm missing here?  Keep in mind, I'm not talking about GPL'd plugins, which would clearly not be kosher, but rather integrating SDK code into GPL projects.
 

GPL compatibility?

Reply #1 –
This issue is covered in gnu.org, under the BSD license.  It is compatible; if you remove all the BSD-licensed parts, you can still use those parts under the BSD license.  Indeed, there are GPLed plugins for foobar2000.  See http://www.cqasys.com/projects/kode54/index.php -- AC3, sidplay, and SoundTouch are all GPLed.

Although I'm not quite sure what you'd use the SDK for besides making foobar2000 plugins, there's nothing restricting you from using it in a GPL'ed project because, once again, as long as you don't relicense the source, people can take out the SDK files and have the BSD license.

In short, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.h...tml#ModifiedBSD which is listed as "GPL-compatible," and is pretty much the license they use (a couple words were added, namely, "COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS" instead of "AUTHOR").

Edit: IANAL, either, but I've heard this issue discussed before.