On May 5, 11:34 pm, Brian Granger <ellisonbg....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Licensing discussions just suck and are a waste of time. Sigh ....
>
> Yes, I fully a agree with you....except when people learn new things
> about the GPL. I think some important things have come out of this
> discussion:
>
> * A notebook/Worksheet is source code and can potentially be a
> derivative work of Sage or any of the libraries that Sage ships with.
Yep.
> * If a particular Worksheet uses a GPL library, and that Worksheet is
> distributed to the public (not just Shared internally on a single Sage
> notebook server), it must be GPL.
I think this is far from clear, but the FSF's interpretation of the
license. The OSI thinks differently for example as pointed out
earlier.
> * Currently, there is not a clear way of indicating or learning about
> the license of a Worksheet.
That might be so, but why would it matter? If you write code and link
against a GPLed library there is no mechanism to remind someone that
they have to abide by the GPL. But I agree that it is far from obvious
to a user of Sage that the GPL of worksheets is even an issue and
might apply to published Sage code. It would be nice to add something
to the manual that gives various POVs of the problem, but in the end
it should conclude that anyone concerned about this should consult a
lawyer since the Sage project is not in the position to give legal
advice.
> * The GPL is confusing as hell...
The main issue here is that there is the letter of the law and the
intend of the GPL. And there is way too much of a grey zone (even if
you limit yourself to US case law) to make me comfortable. And I would
like to emphasize again that just one should just not take the FSF by
their word since they are clearly not a neutral player here.
> Cheers,
>
> Brian
Cheers,
Michael
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