[cups-devel] CUPS License Change Coming

[Solomon Peachy]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2017 at 02:58:37PM -0500, Michael Sweet wrote:
> IANAL and am not comfortable getting into a legal debate about what 
> constitutes an OS-supplied library or whether GPL2-only software can 
> "legally" link against libcups.  But as an example, CUPS had to deal 
> with this when linking against OpenSSL in the past by adding an 
> exception to the license file saying "it is OK to link CUPS against 
> OpenSSL"...  I don't see why that approach would not work for any 
> GPLv2-only project, if there was any question about CUPS being a 
> standard OS library after almost 20 years of use...

I don't want to get into a debate here either, but suffice it to say 
that it's not entirelty clear whether or not the "OS Exception" to the 
GPLv2 applies to other parts of the same operating system.  (ie, a 
typical Linux distribution)

Gutenprint (GPLv2+) is one of those projects impacted by this; our CUPS 
filters obviously link against libcups today, but this also impacts 
future plans -- for example that IPP proof-of-concept you and I recently 
discussed.  Gutenprint had plans to more tightly integrate CUPS into 
our foundational libraries.  We're still evaluating what this will mean.

> Anyways, I can certainly forward your dual-licensing request to the 
> appropriate people at Apple, but I'm sure they will want to know which 
> projects/applications you think will be unable to continue using CUPS, 
> and why.

If you're going to pass the request to the powers that be at Apple, IMO 
it would make more sense for the two licenses to be ASL2.0 and LGPLv2 
(or better yet, LGPLv2+).  That would yield the widest compatibility 
with other/existing projects.

Thanks,

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy			       pizza at shaftnet dot org
Coconut Creek, FL                          ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.