[pypy-dev] speed.pypy.org and mercurial

[Dan Villiom Podlaski Christiansen]

On 16 Dec 2010, at 20:27, Alex Gaynor wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Maciej Fijalkowski  
> <fijall at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Dan Villiom Podlaski Christiansen
>> <danchr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Please note that any use of the Python API means that the entire
>>> application is covered by the GPL.
>>
>> How is it even technically possible? It does not link against
>> mercurial and GPL specifically excludes anything about *running* your
>> software.
>
> Because the term "link" is totally meaningless in the context of  
> Python
> code.  Some people say this means it's impossible for Python to  
> invoke that
> clause of the GPL, others say it means `import`ing something invokes  
> it.
> There's no correct answer.

Well, some people believe that any use of a GPL API constitutes a  
derivative work, and is thus covered by it. Mercurial even went  
through a licence change from GPLv2 to GPLv2+ to get rid of this  
ambiguity. See the links below; otherwise the convert extension (which  
is distributed with Mercurial) might be in violation of its own licence.

<http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/MercurialApi>
<http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/License>

<http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Relicensing>
<http://selenic.com/pipermail/mercurial/2009-September/027740.html>
<http://selenic.com/pipermail/mercurial-devel/2009-October/015963.html>

Anyway, as long as your code is open, people are unlikely to care  
enough to do anything about it…

--

Dan Villiom Podlaski Christiansen
danchr at gmail.com


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