[Xapian-tickets] [Xapian] #191: Possible license conflict with the PHP bindings

[Xapian]

#191: Possible license conflict with the PHP bindings
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 Reporter:  fabrice.colin          |        Owner:  richard  
     Type:  defect                 |       Status:  assigned 
 Priority:  normal                 |    Milestone:           
Component:  Xapian-bindings (PHP)  |      Version:  SVN trunk
 Severity:  normal                 |   Resolution:           
 Keywords:                         |    Blockedby:           
 Platform:  All                    |     Blocking:           
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Description changed by olly:

Old description:

> I am reporting this on behalf of Adel Gadllah <adel.gadllah at gmail.com>,
> who
> is looking into packaging the bindings for Fedora 7.
>
> The PHP license and the GPL aren't compatible but xapian-bindings links
> PHP licenced and GPL licensed code.
>
> Quotes from the conversation on IRC with Fedora developers :
> "the problem i'm seeing is that xapian-bindings has bits of code that
> are GPLv2+ and PHP"
> "and it is merging them together into one .cc file and compiling _that_"
> "except, the GPLv2 and PHP are incompatible"
> "BOOM"
> "tell upstream that they can't compile PHP code with GPL* code"
>
> We need this solved first before continuing with building the other
> bindings in Fedora.
>
> Fabrice

New description:

 = Current status =

 We believe it's OK to distribute the source code to the PHP bindings, but
 distributing binaries is problematic.  So for example, the PHP bindings
 are disabled in the Debian packages (it's pretty easy to build your own
 php-xapian binary package, but you probably can't safely distribute it).

 The ways this situation could be resolved that we can see are:

  * PHP gets relicensed without the problematic clause which restricts the
 names you can use for derived works, which is the assumed incompatibility.
 This clause doesn't really achieve what they're aiming for since it only
 applies to derived works - if I create a work not derived from the PHP
 source, the PHP licence doesn't apply and I can use PHP in its name - even
 if it's written in PHP (e.g. phpBB, PHP-Nuke, CakePHP).  A trademark on
 PHP would be a more appropriate option for protecting the name.  Looking
 at past licensing discussions between Debian and the PHP developers, this
 isn't likely to happen.

  * We can get legal assurance that the problematic PHP licence clause is
 compatible with the GPL.  The FSF have stated that it's incompatible with
 GPLv2, but I never found a clear statement that this was still the case
 with GPLv3 (GPLv3 7c allows ''requiring that modified versions of such
 material be marked in reasonable ways as different from the original
 version'', so if the PHP naming restriction is "reasonable" then the
 licences appear to be compatible).  I emailed the FSF licensing people
 seeking to clarify this, but they never replied.

  * We add an exception to Xapian's licence which explicitly allows linking
 with PHP.  This isn't going to happen because some of the Xapian copyright
 holders have no interest in doing so.

  * We eliminate the code we can't relicense from Xapian, and release it
 under a licence compatible with the PHP licence.  This is probably going
 to happen eventually, as we've agreed a more liberal licence is
 appropriate and the older code is gradually getting replaced as the
 codebase evolves, but it's not likely to happen overnight.  But I suspect
 this is how this issue will eventually get resolved.

 ----

 ''Original description:''

 I am reporting this on behalf of Adel Gadllah <adel.gadllah at gmail.com>,
 who
 is looking into packaging the bindings for Fedora 7.

 The PHP license and the GPL aren't compatible but xapian-bindings links
 PHP licenced and GPL licensed code.

 Quotes from the conversation on IRC with Fedora developers :
 "the problem i'm seeing is that xapian-bindings has bits of code that
 are GPLv2+ and PHP"
 "and it is merging them together into one .cc file and compiling _that_"
 "except, the GPLv2 and PHP are incompatible"
 "BOOM"
 "tell upstream that they can't compile PHP code with GPL* code"

 We need this solved first before continuing with building the other
 bindings in Fedora.

 Fabrice

--

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.xapian.org/ticket/191#comment:13>
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