Re: Unsplash, the DFSG, and the GPL

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:20:28 -0700

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Organization	Debian
Message-ID	<2920363.yaVYbkx8dN@soren-desktop>

On Friday, March 14, 2025 12:10:45 PM Mountain Standard Time Soren Stoutner wrote:
> However, as you can’t combine Unsplash or CC-BY-SA 3.0 code with the GPL,
> there is no way you can ship Endless Sky in its current state in Debian or
> anywhere else.

I realized that when I wrote this I made an assumption that might not be true.  You cannot 
combine GPL and CC-BY-SA 3.0 code into a single binary or a linked library.  So, if any of 
the files that are licensed under the GPL are compiled or linked as shared libraries against 
any of the files licensed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 you are not compliant with the licenses.

However, if the files under these two licenses are completely separate than it isn’t an issue.  
For example, if the code is all under the GPL and some of the graphic files are under the 
CC-BY-SA 3.0, and if those graphic files are shipped as, for example, separate .png files 
that are loaded by the binaries at runtime, then this would not be a problem.

I haven’t looked at the code for Endless Sky, but I realized that as it is a game this might be 
what it is doing.

Of course, nothing about this changes what I wrote about Unsplash being DFSG-non-free.

-- 
Soren Stoutner
[email protected]

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