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Re: What license should I use when including code from subversion?

From: Florian Weimer <fw_at_deneb.enyo.de>
Date: 2004-02-25 19:32:49 CET

kfogel@collab.net wrote:

> Now, the minor complication is that the Subversion license does ask
> you to put the words
>
> "This product includes software developed by CollabNet
> (http://www.Collab.Net/)."
>
> somewhere. So fine, just do that. The GPL doesn't forbid this, so
> you can satisfy all of the requirements of the Subversion license
> easily, and you can satisfy the GPL to the copyright holder's (i.e.,
> your) satisfaction.

I guess this has been discussed to death already, but here we go:

We have two separate issues here.

  (a) When you, as a developer, write some code from scratch and combine
      it with Subversion code (in a way which makes the whole thing a
      derivative work of Subversion), you must put the note somewhere.

  (b) At the same time, you must require that those who obtain the
      software (your work plus the Subversion code) do not remove the
      note.

(a) is not a problem and certainly satisfiable if you put your code
under the GPL. (b) adds an additional restriction, and is thus
incompatible with the GPL. As a reuslt, the license is inconsisten.

By the way, the URL in the note is a rather dangerous thing and could
easily make Subversion undistributable in the unlikely event that
CollabNet loses its domain to, say, a porn site.

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Received on Mon Mar 1 21:29:47 2004

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