Hi, This is a follow-up for my blog entry http://blog.zugschlus.de/archives/585-exim4-vs.-OpenSSL-vs.-GnuTLS.html which unfortunately didn't result in the license advice that I was hoping to get. I am therefore asking debian-legal for opinions. Please note that I am neither a native speaker of english nor am I very fluent in english legalese.
exim4 is GPL and links, in the exim4-daemon-heavy flavour, against GnuTLS, the mySQL client library, libpq and some other libraries. exim4 has an explicit exemption to allow linking to OpenSSL; and I was told that MySQL's FOSS exemption clause says the same in legalese for OpenSSL. libpq is already linked against OpenSSL. GnuTLS has a truckload of technical issues which - in sum - raise my motivation to change exim4 to use OpenSSL tremendously. I am simply sick of having to handle GnuTLS incompatibilities. Now my questions: (1) Is it ok to change exim's SSL library to OpenSSL in the current setup without violating the GPL for some of the library currently in use (2) Will it be a violation of the GPL to link exim to a GPL-without-OpenSSL-exemption-clause library in the future? (3) Is this violation maybe already happening by virtue of linking indirectly to OpenSSL via libpq? I am also interested to hear about other license aspects that I might move myself into when changing exim to use OpenSSL instead of GnuTLS. Greetings Marc -- -------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! ----- Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/ Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834
