Bug#219595: libffi2: Licensing problems
Package: libffi2
Version: 1:3.3.2-3
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.3 Copyright considerations
Hi!
Libffi2 is supposed to be licensend under a very permissive license of
the type "do whatever you want with the code"[0]. Yet, the build
procedure of the Debian libffi2 source package make it impossible to
build libffi2 *without* the GCC source code, which is licensed under
the GNU GPL. So, because of this direct dependency, the libffi2
binary becomes a derivative work of GCC, and must then be licensed
under the GPL, which can have unfortunate consequences on any
non-GPL software that depends on libffi2 [SableVM comes to mind:-)].
There are of course 2 solutions:
1- Put the appropriate license on the libffi2 binary package
(e.g. GPL), and cause problems to dependent packages (not
recommended).
2- Remove the build dependency on gcc's GPL source code, and for
safety (and simplicity), split libffi2's source package from the gcc
source package (highly recommended).
I would be willing to help, if help is needed, to help the gcc/libffi2
maintainers do the split.
Etienne
[0] More precisely, /usr/share/doc/libffi2/copyright says:
--- BEGIN ---
libffi - Copyright (c) 1996-1999 Cygnus Solutions
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
``Software''), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL CYGNUS SOLUTIONS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
--- END ---
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: powerpc
Kernel: Linux gandalf 2.4.20-ben1 #1 Sun Feb 2 20:00:49 EST 2003 ppc
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C
Versions of packages libffi2 depends on:
ii gcc-3.3-base 1:3.3.2-3 The GNU Compiler Collection (base
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-9 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
-- no debconf information
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