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Posted to legal-discuss@apache.org by "Pedro Giffuni (Issue Comment Edited) (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org> on 2012/01/15 17:49:45 UTC
[jira] [Issue Comment Edited] (LEGAL-117) Aggregation of GPL
dictionaries with Apache OpenOffice (incubating) binary releases
[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-117?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13186531#comment-13186531 ]
Pedro Giffuni edited comment on LEGAL-117 at 1/15/12 4:49 PM:
--------------------------------------------------------------
@Sam
I think I have found a relevant issue that is really specific to ASF policies and may have to be dealt with in this case.
It has been stated here that 'since dictionaries are data files (text files), "binary" and "source" form are actually the same thing'.
For reciprocal licenses the Third-Party Licensing Policy is clear: "Note that works written in a scripting language without a binary form cannot be included in any ASF product under one of these licenses (see Transition and Exceptions)."
This would, in principle, apply to GPL'd dictionaries but most importantly it applies fully to weak copyleft (MPL) too.
Reading further, Apache policies have specifically dealt this with this situation by defining a special rule for incubating projects. According to this link:
http://www.apache.org/legal/3party.html#transition
We need an authorized exception for this case and according to the General Rule this will give us time until the second ASF release. I understand this issue is also under current revision (every 6 months?).
was (Author: pgiffuni):
@Sam
I think I have found a relevant issue that it's really more specific to ASF policies, and may have to be dealt with in this case.
It has been stated here that 'since dictionaries are data files (text files), "binary" and "source" form are actually the same thing'.
For reciprocal licenses the Third-Party Licensing Policy is clear: "Note that works written in a scripting language without a binary form cannot be included in any ASF product under one of these licenses (see Transition and Exceptions)."
This would, in principle apply to GPL'd dictionaries but most importantly to weak copyleft (MPL'd) too. Reading further, Apache policies have specifically dealt this with this situation by defining a special rule for incubating projects. According to this link:
http://www.apache.org/legal/3party.html#transition
We need an authorized exception for this case and according to the General Rule this will give us time until the second ASF release. I understand this issue is also under current revision (every 6 months?).
> Aggregation of GPL dictionaries with Apache OpenOffice (incubating) binary releases
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: LEGAL-117
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-117
> Project: Legal Discuss
> Issue Type: Question
> Reporter: Andrea Pescetti
> Assignee: Sam Ruby
>
> Localized versions of OpenOffice.org have traditionally included dictionaries (a term used to designate data files for writing aids in general, like spell-checking dictionaries and thesauri) under the GPL license. These dictionaries are provided in the form of data files.
> Dictionaries are not a dependency of OpenOffice.org: they are packaged, even in the installer for native builds, as extensions. Any Windows version of OpenOffice.org is shipped as one file, containing separate modules for OpenOffice.org and for each linguistic extension (i.e., the dictionaries).
> This is possible because OpenOffice.org dictionaries, as confirmed by the Free Software Foundation in 2007 https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=65039 fall in the "mere aggregation" provision of the GPL license http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
> The only remaining issue to be able to include GPL dictionaries in Apache OpenOffice is thus the Apache policy http://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html which forbids GPL software from being included in Apache projects; but the rationale for this choice http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html clearly states that "This licensing incompatibility applies only when some Apache project software becomes a derivative work of some GPLv3 software", definitely not the case under discussion.
> In light of the above, can Apache OpenOffice include GPL spell-checking dictionaries with its binary releases?
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