[Savannah-hackers] Re: address@hidden: Re: [gnu.org #215181] GNU GPL plug-in for Eclipse]

[address@hidden via RT]

On Wed, 2004-11-24 at 07:50, Sylvain Beucler wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Soon after I approved your project, I was hit by a doubt regarding the
> Eclipse licensing issue.
> 
> Unfortunately, the Eclipse Public License does not allow to write
> GPL'd plugins. See the following mail from address@hidden
> 
> Until this issue is fixed, you have several choices:
> 
> - release the plugin under a license compatible with both the GNU GPL
>   and the EPL (such as Expat or mBSD); in this case, please submit a
>   distinct project at Savannah to make the license change clear.
> 
> - release the plugin under the EPL; in this case, as the license is
>   incompatible with the GNU GPL, the project could not be hosted at
>   Savannah.
> 
> So in all cases, the eclipse plug-in cannot be added to the cashew-s
> project for now.
> 
> Please let me know your decision.
> 
> Apologize for the inconvenience, I should have spotted this during the
> registration process.
> 
> -- 
> Sylvain
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from "address@hidden via RT" <address@hidden> -----
> 
> Subject: Re: [gnu.org #215181] GNU GPL plug-in for Eclipse
> From: "address@hidden via RT" <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Cc: address@hidden,address@hidden
> Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 19:27:32 -0500
> 
> On Sun, 2004-11-21 at 08:20 -0500, Sylvain Beucler via RT wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I recently approved this project:
> > https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/cashew-s
> > 
> > I told the user it was possible to write a plug-in for Eclipse (under
> > the Eclipse Public License) and release it under the GNU GPL using an
> > exception as described at
> > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLPluginsInNF
> > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs
> > 
> > My approval is here:
> > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers/2004-11/msg00550.html
> > 
> > However, I now wonder whether such linking is possible.
> > 
> > Let's consider an hypothetical license "anti-GPL" that permits any
> > kind of use except combinaison with GNU GPL'd program. If I release a
> > GPL'd plug-in for a piece of software released under the anti-GPL,
> > adding an exception to my plug-in will not be enough to combine the
> > two programs.
> > 
> > So my questions are:
> > - Is using an exception enough to combine any GPL-incompatible
> >   software with GPL'd software?
> > - If not, is it possible to release an GPL'd plug-in for Eclipse?
> 
> The Eclipse people don't believe that plug-ins are derivative works of
> the main program.  We do.  So, they think they permit this, and we think
> they don't.  To make this clear, I'm talking to them about getting an
> explicit exception in place to allow this.   
> 
> Until then, we think such linking violates their license.

Hi Sylvain,
        Thanks for making us aware of this issue.  As you can understand, this
has been a cause for considerable concern amongst the members of our
project.  Would it be possible for yourself or licensing to give us a
brief overview of the pros and cons of switching to either license, as
regards the wider reaching effects to our code (not just as relates to
Savannah).
        As we see it at present, the mBSD license, while allowing the editor
side of the project to stay on Savannah, is too permissive.  From what I
gather from the FSF pages, the EPL is a more restrictive license, but
incompatible with the GPL due to the patent clauses.  Our preference
would be for something which most closely follows the terms of the GPL
and the notion of copy-left, while still being able to be linked against
Eclipse.  I gather from your mail above, that the mBSD and Expat/MIT are
the only GPL-compatible licenses that will link with Eclipse -- is this
correct?
        We would be very grateful if you could offer any advice you have to us
on a license that will best fit our concerns.  Also, what are the
chances of GPLed Eclipse plug-ins becoming a possibility, and would it
be possible for the editor to be re-appropriated by Savannah, under the
GPL, if this occurs?

Many thanks for all your help,
-- 
Andrew :-)

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