Re: Bug#169243: ilisp: Is it even distributable?

Peter,

Thanks for message. I've forwarded your message to ilisp-devel for
their consideration as well as debian-legal. ILISP has been an
important part of Lisp development for many years, so it is essential
to clarify the issue completely. 

Of course, I think it is the hope of all that ILISP's license can
become DSFG compliant.

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Peter S Galbraith wrote:
> Package: ilisp
> Version: 5.11.1-7
> Severity: serious
> 
> ilisp is not licensed under the GPL.  It seems to be close to a free
> license.  Unless I missed something, the only obstacle I saw is:
> 
>         o  No fees or compensation are charged for use, copies, or
>            access to this software. You may charge a nominal
>            distribution fee for the physical act of transferring a
>            copy, but you may not charge for the program itself. 
> 
> The problems as I see them:
> 
> - The package bundles GPLed files such as comint-v18.el and others for the
>   obvious purpose of loading them.
> 
> - The package makes use of many Emacs libraries.  e.g.:
>    (require 'comint)
>    (require 'cl)
>    (require 'imenu)    
> 
> These libraries are not LGPL'ed.  They are GPL'ed.  Therefore if you use
> them you have to have a GPL-compatible license.
> 
> The copyright file even says:
> 
>  "ILISP if freely redistributable. Eventually it may become part of GNU
>   Emacs and it will in that case comply with the GPL."
> 
> Sorry, it must comply with the GPL now as it makes extensive use of GPL
> code.
> 
> Changing licenses won't be easy given the number of author that must be
> contacted.  I wish them luck.


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