[Xapian-discuss] PHP bindings license problem

[Alexander Lind]

James Aylett wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 08:57:24AM -0700, Alexander Lind wrote:
>   
>> Does anyone know exactly what the outcome of this will be, and when a 
>> final decision will be made on the PHP bindings being or not being?
>>     
>
> I haven't discussed this with Richard or Olly, but I believe we'll
> have to remove PHP bindings from the distribution in a fairly near
> future version, unless we can get legal advice that this isn't
> actually an issue for us.
>   
I am very sad to hear that.
Do you know of any lawyer that would be proficient to give you this 
advice?  If we can find out how much the advice will cost, perhaps we 
can find a way to take care of the cost for you.
Unless you think its a completely lost cause of course. Would be good to 
hear what you all think about it when you have discussed it.
>   
>> If the final result is a negative one, could someone perhaps offer some 
>> pointers on how I can go about creating my own PHP bindings using SWIG?
>>     
>
> IANAL, but I think you can just take the existing ones, providing you
> don't distribute them. (Because you are *not* required to *use*
> anything we distribute under the GPL, merely to redistribute under the
> GPL. However you need this to be true in any case, because the whole
> of Xapian is GPL licensed.)
>   
Old bindings I can just keep using, sure, but what about new releases of 
Xapian?  If I create the bindings myself using SWIG, and I only use them 
without redistributing them, I should be alright.
So my question is, is it hard to create the bindings with SWIG?
> I stress: this needs a lawyer, and if you want to proceed on this, you
> should consult one for your territory. You'll need to do that even if
> you don't use code from our existing bindings, to make sure you aren't
> violating the *PHP* license by linking across to something that is GPL
> licensed (even assuming that you don't violate the GPL license by
> linking in the other direction).
>   
I've asked in the php mailing list, but I doubt this would be the case. 
IANAL, so I could be wrong I suppose.
> Alternatively, find or build yourself a Xapian application server, and
> talk HTTP to it from PHP. That has zero legal risk as far as anyone
> knows.
>   
It would be very sad to have to resort to that, assuming such a solution 
would be a lot slower than using the bindings.

Thanks for the advice anyhow.
Alec
> J
>
>