From: Todd T. Fries <toddf@acm.org>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:14:11 -0500

Re: Open list of issues before Degas goes out

On Wed, Sep 16, 1998 at 09:09:50AM +0200, Sven wrote:
> (* about copyright *)
> 
> why not simply say it is under both GPL and/or BSD style ? 
> 
> Friendly,
> 
> Sven LUTHER

Ok, people.  Let's make it plain what the issues are:

1.  libggi is NOT currently BSD style license.
2.  to make it so would require permission from all authors involved.
    I give mine.
3.  If it is not BSD style licensed, aka remainds GPL or LGPL, the BSD
    community will not use it. Therefore no interest in kgi or the ggi
    project at all.

Now, you can muddy the watters with accuesations of gnu utilities.  Try
checkout the source structure of a bsd system.  I give for example the
OpenBSD source tree:

/usr/src/bin
/usr/src/usr.sbin
/usr/src/lib
/usr/src/libexec
/usr/src/sys
/usr/src/sys/gnu
/usr/src/gnu/bin
/usr/src/gnu/usr.bin
/usr/src/gnu/lib

Now, the gnu parts of the tree are clearly defined and separated from
the rest of the tree so if someone wishes to deal with the tree without
the gnu stuff they may.

The point is not that gnu is already in the tree.   The point is that
the goal of a BSD style project is to make the code freely availabe for
any use, just give credit where you got the code.

Let me quote from http://www.openbsd.org/goals.html:

[...]
Integrate good code from any source with <a href=policy.html>acceptable
	copyright (Berkeley style preferred, GPL acceptable, NDA not)</a>.
	We want to make available source code that anyone can use for ANY
	PURPOSE, with no restrictions.
	<strong>We strive to make our software robust and secure, and encourage
	companies to use whichever pieces they want to.</strong>  There are
	<a href=products.html>commercial spin-offs</a> of OpenBSD.
[...]
..and then from policy.html

[...]
Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to
maintain the spirit of the original Berkeley unix copyrights.
</p>
<p>
OpenBSD can exist as it does today because of the example set by the
Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley and the battles which they
and others fought to create a relatively un-encumbered unix source
distribution.
</p>
<p>
The ability of a <strong>freely redistributable</strong> "Berkeley" unix
to move forward on a competitive basis with other operating systems depends
on the willingness of the various development groups to exchange code amongst
themselves and with other projects.

Understanding the legal issues surrounding copyright is fundamental to
the ability to exchange and re-distribute code, while honoring the spirit of
the copyright and concept of attribution is fundamental to promoting the
cooperation of the people involved.
</p>
<p>
<h3><font color=#0000e0>The Berkeley Copyright</font></h3>
The Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private or commercial
use of the software and imposes only simple and uniform requirements
for maintaining copyright notices in redistributed versions and
crediting the originator of the material <strong>only</strong> in
advertising.
</p>
<p>
Because the OpenBSD copyright imposes no conditions beyond those
imposed by the Berkeley copyright, OpenBSD can hope to share the same
wide distribution and applicability as the Berkeley distributions.
It follows however, that OpenBSD can not include material which
includes copyrights which are more restrictive than the Berkeley
copyright, or must relegate this material to a secondary status,
i.e. OpenBSD as a whole is freely redistributable, but some optional
components may not be.
[...]

Now, if you import kgi to bsd and then you import libggi, you have a
componoent which is not optional but is not freely redistributable.

I hope I have made the BSD position clear.  By the decision on the copyright
of libggi you have decided whether or not the BSD community can join the
ggi project efforts at all.  If you choose lgpl, fine, just rename the project
back to linux-ggi and be done with it.

End of discssion.  Make your decision.
-- 
Todd Fries .. toddf@acm.org