Samba & Unix users sync

Peter Samuelson peter at cadcamlab.org
Wed Jul 19 23:37:19 GMT 2000


[Chris Hertel]
> There was some problem, but I don't remember exactly what it was.
> I'm sure someone else on the list does.  Someone help me out here.

The GPL states that you cannot redistribute "derivative works" with
more restrictions than you received.  (This is the so-called "viral
nature" of the GPL.)  The original UCB license, although in most ways
more liberal than the GPL, placed this "additional restriction" and
thus causes a conflict:

| 3. The name of any author may not be used to endorse or promote
|    products derived from this software without their specific prior
|    written permission.

About a year ago, the Regents retroactively adopted a revised BSD
license omitting the ad clause, so "new"-BSD-licensed software
(including everything that is actually *from* Berkeley) is in fact
GPL-compatible.

                    *          *          *

As for PAM, there is no issue:

| ALTERNATIVELY, this product may be distributed under the terms of the
| GNU General Public License, in which case the provisions of the GNU
| GPL are required INSTEAD OF the above restrictions.  (This clause is
| necessary due to a potential conflict between the GNU GPL and the
| restrictions contained in a BSD-style copyright.)

Peter




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