Bug 1021751 - License incompatibility
Summary: License incompatibility
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: dnf
Version: 19
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Packaging Maintenance Team
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2013-10-22 01:58 UTC by Marcel Ribeiro Dantas
Modified: 2013-10-22 07:38 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-10-22 07:38:08 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Marcel Ribeiro Dantas 2013-10-22 01:58:08 UTC
Description of problem:
According to `yum info dnf`, dnf is a fork of yum (which according to `yum info yum` is distributed under the terms o GNU GPLv2+). However, according to the output of the very same command line, dnf is distributed under the terms of GNU GPLv2+, GNU GPLv2 and GNU GPL.

GNU GPLv2 and GNU GPL are not compatible licences, which means that by doing that you are violating the license of yum (GNU GPLv2+).

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
dnf 0.3.11
yum 3.4.3

Steps to reproduce:
1. yum info dnf
2. yum info yum

By the + along with the license name, it is meant that you can distribute the following source code under the terms of the such license or any *later* version of this license released by the Free Software Foundation.

Comment 1 Ales Kozumplik 2013-10-22 07:38:08 UTC
(In reply to Marcel Ribeiro Dantas from comment #0)
> Description of problem:
> According to `yum info dnf`, dnf is a fork of yum (which according to `yum
> info yum` is distributed under the terms o GNU GPLv2+). However, according
> to the output of the very same command line, dnf is distributed under the
> terms of GNU GPLv2+, GNU GPLv2 and GNU GPL.

It means different parts (files) of DNF are distributed under one of these licenses, not that DNF as a whole is distributed under arbitrary license from the set. It is Yum that does not properly mention all of its licenses[1]

I should also mention that the DNF upstream is making some effort towards removing the source files that are not GNU GPLv2+ but as all the licensing experts out there can imagine, it's not that easy and simply moving moving the functionality into different files (i.e. refactoring) is not what is going to cut it.

[1] http://lists.baseurl.org/pipermail/yum-devel/2012-July/009376.html


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