Package: libffi2 Version: 1:3.3.2-3 Severity: serious Justification: Policy 2.3 Copyright considerations
Hi! Libffi2 is supposed to be licensend under a very permissive license of the type "do whatever you want with the code"[0]. Yet, the build procedure of the Debian libffi2 source package make it impossible to build libffi2 *without* the GCC source code, which is licensed under the GNU GPL. So, because of this direct dependency, the libffi2 binary becomes a derivative work of GCC, and must then be licensed under the GPL, which can have unfortunate consequences on any non-GPL software that depends on libffi2 [SableVM comes to mind:-)]. There are of course 2 solutions: 1- Put the appropriate license on the libffi2 binary package (e.g. GPL), and cause problems to dependent packages (not recommended). 2- Remove the build dependency on gcc's GPL source code, and for safety (and simplicity), split libffi2's source package from the gcc source package (highly recommended). I would be willing to help, if help is needed, to help the gcc/libffi2 maintainers do the split. Etienne [0] More precisely, /usr/share/doc/libffi2/copyright says: --- BEGIN --- libffi - Copyright (c) 1996-1999 Cygnus Solutions Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ``Software''), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL CYGNUS SOLUTIONS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. --- END --- -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable Architecture: powerpc Kernel: Linux gandalf 2.4.20-ben1 #1 Sun Feb 2 20:00:49 EST 2003 ppc Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C Versions of packages libffi2 depends on: ii gcc-3.3-base 1:3.3.2-3 The GNU Compiler Collection (base ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-9 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an -- no debconf information
