Neon license conditions

Hi Stefan,

I have been looking through the license files of the various components
used in SVN and noticed these clauses in the COPYING.LIB file in Neon
(section 6):

<quote>
     For an executable, the required form of the "work that uses the
Library" must include any data and utility programs needed for
reproducing the executable from it. However, as a special exception,
the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally
distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major
components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on
which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
the executable.

     It may happen that this requirement contradicts the license
restrictions of other proprietary libraries that do not normally
accompany the operating system. Such a contradiction means you cannot
use both them and the Library together in an executable that you
distribute.
</quote>

The Windows binary distribution of SVN uses Microsoft proprietary
compilers and libraries which cannot be redistributed, and clients built
against SVN libraries may well do the same (TSVN does, and it also
relies on MFC which is not available for free). The MS compiler is not
considered part of the OS as it would be with *nix, so it appears we are
required to provide it from the same download site as the source, as
part of the 'utility programs needed for reproducing the executable'.
This would appear to preclude the use of the Neon library.

IANAL. Am I missing something obvious here? I am hoping you guys know
more about Lib GPL than I do.

Simon

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