[Python-Dev] GPL'd python code vs Python2.6 linked against OpenSSL

[Joao S. O. Bueno]

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:20 PM, James Y Knight <foom at fuhm.net> wrote:
> It's well known that OpenSSL is incompatible with the GPL. [1] Python (from 2.6) is *always* linked against openssl, instead of waiting for you to "import ssl".
>
> Doesn't this mean it's now impossible (rather, a license violation) to distribute a GPL'd python program (or to use a GPL'd library in your python program)? This seems like a problem...

Hi -


Any libraries commonly avaliable with a CPython instalation can be
considered as "system libraries" for GPL purposes - and so
this would fall in the "system library exception" as described by the FAQ:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs

In GPLv2 we have
"""
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not
include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or
binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on)
of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that
component itself accompanies the executable.
"""

And in v3:
"""
The “System Libraries” of an executable work include anything, other
than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of
packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major
Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that
Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an
implementation is available to the public in source code form. A
“Major Component”, in this context, means a major essential component
(kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system
(if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to
produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it.
"""


regards,

   js
  -><-

>
> Thanks to Ulrik Sverdrup  (http://lists.debian.org/debian-python/2011/03/msg00082.html) for pointing this out...
>
> James
>
> [1] http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl.html
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