Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Re: Licensing question: compatibility between Vim license and GPL

On 2023-10-16, Christian Brabandt <cblists@256bit.org> wrote:
>
> On So, 15 Okt 2023, Tony Mechelynck wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Oct 15, 2023 at 7:29 PM Lifepillar <lifepillar@lifepillar.me> wrote:
>> >
>> > Can code released under Vim license include third-party code released
>> > under GPLv2 or GPLv3?
>> >
>> > I have read that Vim license is "GPL-compatible", but it is not clear to
>> > me which way such compatibility works.
>> >
>> > Thanks for providing legal advice for free ;)
>> > Life
>>
>> I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV; but I believe that the
>> following (at the bottom of the ":help license" text) is relevant:
>>
>> - According to Richard Stallman the Vim license is GNU GPL compatible.
>> A few minor changes have been made since he checked it, but that should not
>> make a difference.
>>
>> - If you link Vim with a library that goes under the GNU GPL, this limits
>> further distribution to the GNU GPL. Also when you didn't actually change
>> anything in Vim.
>>
>> - Once a change is included that goes under the GNU GPL, this forces all
>> further changes to also be made under the GNU GPL or a compatible license.
>>
>> - If you distribute a modified version of Vim, you can include your name and
>> contact information with the "--with-modified-by" configure argument or the
>> MODIFIED_BY define.
>
> Thanks, that is also my understanding of the compatibility of the
> licenses.

Thanks, that's useful.

This licensing stuff has higher complexity than the halting problem.

Life.

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