libgnutls-openssl and real openssl conflict

[Chris Adams]

Once upon a time, David A. Wheeler <dwheeler at dwheeler.com> said:
> That will probably create many legal problems.
> If there's a way to keep this package, we should.
> 
> As many of you know, the basic problem is that the OpenSSL license
> is incompatible with the GPL:

Aside from the "system library" exemption already mentioned, most GPL
software that links against OpenSSL has a specific exemption in the
documentation.

> Any program that links to libgnutls-openssl that has GPL'ed components
> probably CANNOT be legally linked to OpenSSL.

The flip side of that is that libgnutls-openssl is GPLv3+, which means
that anything under GPLv2-only or any other non-GPLv3-compatible license
may not be able to use it.  I'm not sure, since it implements somebody
else's interface; can anything using the OpenSSL library API be
considered a derived work of libgnutls-openssl (by virtue of linking)?

-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams at hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.