[antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?

[Anthony Youngman]

Acutally, Ter is correct here.

ONLY TER CAN RELICENCE ANTLR (okay, that's not totally true, seeing as
he doesn't own all the copyrights).

Let's say I modify Antlr, and mixing it with GPL3 (or GPL2) software,
and want to distribute it. The GPL says I must licence ALL MY CODE as
GPL (I can dual licence it, if I wish, so I could BSD it as well). It
also says I must licence the collective under the GPL - which in
practical terms means I have to supply *all* the source to *everything*
upon request.

Seeing as Antlr is BSD, and I have (or can legally get) the sources and
redistribute them, that is not a problem. (Oh - I've come across hints
that there may be problems with Antlr and GPL3. If Antlr needs Sun Java
and the source for that is not available, it may not be possible to
distribute Antlr under GPL3.)

So to sum up. Antlr is under the BSD. ONLY TER CAN CHANGE THAT. If I mix
it with GPL software, I must then treat it AS IF the entire thing was
licenced under the GPL. The BSD licence gives me the rights I need to do
that, so there is no problem.


Copyright and licencing is actually a simple problem - IF you understand
the law, and carefully read the relevant licences. The two mistakes I
see time and time again are when people try to force the licensOR to
abide by the licence (hint - they can give themselves permission to do
anything they damn well wish!), and when people don't read the licence
CAREFULLY and misunderstand it. The GPL seems especially prone to this
:-( If you want an education in copyright law and Free Software,
subscribe to debian.legal and read the archives. 

Cheers,
Wol

-----Original Message-----
From: antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org
[mailto:antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org] On Behalf Of Terence Parr
Sent: 15 August 2006 22:45
To: Antlr Interest
Subject: Re: [antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?


On Aug 15, 2006, at 1:34 PM, Micheal J wrote:
>> Yes, and this is what happens if you link to ANTLR v3's
>> library from GPL-code.  You are in essence re-licensing it as
>> GPL (which is allowed by the new BSD license, and which is
>> why that license is compatible with the GPL).
>> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatDoesCompatMean
>
>
> Not if you link to the ANTLR v3 binaries. Only if you wish to  
> include the
> ANTLR v3 sources in a GPL'ed program. You need to re-license to  
> satisfy the
> GPL requirement that all derivative works (of a GPL-licensed work)  
> must also
> be GPL. Actually that should be "must also be available under the  
> GPL". They
> may be simultaneously available under other licenses.

I will also point out that one must keep my BSD copyright in any  
source code and if in binary distribution I think in the manual or  
whatever...I don't think you can relicense a BSD as GPL.  What would  
it mean to have two licenses in a single file?

Ter

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