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   mort (mort@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 16:45:19 JST mort

   TIL that if your software is licensed under the GPL, you can't link against OpenSSL or other Apache-licensed libraries, either directly or indirectly: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1094969

   I mean you *can*, at least wrt. OpenSSL, but only if the entity which distributes your software doesn't also distribute OpenSSL. Meaning distros can't distribute your software, and you can't distribute a bundle with your software + OpenSSL.

   What a mess. Staying away from #GPL from now on. #foss #opensource #freesoftware

   • Alfred M. Szmidt repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Karl R (wickedsmoke@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 16:45:18 JST Karl R

     in reply to

     @mort This is a potential GPL-2.0-only problem. If Linus had used GPL-2.0-or-later then people could use Git under GPL-v3 terms, which are compatible with Apache-v2.

     Copyright itself is a mess. I'm grateful to have copyleft options like GPL.

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 16:47:16 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

     in reply to

     • Karl R

     @wickedsmoke And it is not an issue with the #GNU #GPL ... there is no reason to stay away from the GPL, rather than... license compatibility is a mess no matter what license one picks.

     OpenSSL could change their license to something that is GPLv2 compatible, or git to something that is GPLv3-only / -and-or-later. They could also do more work on being compliant., just cause something is free software doesn't mean you have no obligations.

     @mort