Re: SELinux to GPL or not to GPL

listuserat_private

Patents and the GPL pose a problem, not so much on the patent end (you need
tolicense it in any event to use it, unless there is some RSAREF equiv for
TE/DTE). On the GPL end:

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Now the preamble says:

"Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We
wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will
individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program
proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be
licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all."

But in the license proper we have sections 7 and 8:

============
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so
as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any
other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute
the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit
royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies
directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both
it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the
Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any
particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and
the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents
or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims;
this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free
software distribution system, which is implemented by public license
practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of
software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent
application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or
she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a
licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a
consequence of the rest of this License.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain
countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original
copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an
explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so
that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded.
In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the
body of this License.

============

So it looks like you need to license TE/DTE with a license that allows
redistribution under the GPL, or you can try and find prior art and sue them
(unlikely). I'm not sure there is a third option (well, not doing TE/DTE is
a third option I suppose).

Kurt Seifried, kurtat_private
A15B BEE5 B391 B9AD B0EF
AEB0 AD63 0B4E AD56 E574
http://seifried.org/security/

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