[antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?

[Anthony Youngman]

Oops ... I failed to mention ...

Look at what the GPL says about sublicencing and the licence your
recipients get to code you don't own ... it says basically "each
recipient receives a licence direct from the original copyright holder".

So when you pass on your modified Antlr, the recipients get their
licence to the main Antlr bits direct from Ter. And as the only licence
he grants is the BSD, that's what they get, not the GPL.

Cheers,
Wol

-----Original Message-----
From: antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org
[mailto:antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org] On Behalf Of Anthony Youngman
Sent: 16 August 2006 15:58
To: Antlr Interest
Subject: RE: [antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?

Spot on.

To make things even more complicated, you could take advantage of the
clause that says if you distribute as source, that's the end of the
matter. So with the original BSD *with* the advertising clause, you
can't distribute binaries but you could distribute as source and leave
it to the recipients to compile the result into a working program.

There are "interesting" ways around the GPL - that's why linux distros
include scripts that will auto-download and -install proprietary video
drivers, for instance, but they all involve hassle for the end user. I
think that's deliberate in an accidental kind of way - it makes sure the
end user knows the distributor isn't giving you the rights you're
supposed to have.

Cheers,
Wol

-----Original Message-----
From: antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org
[mailto:antlr-interest-bounces at antlr.org] On Behalf Of Scott Amort
Sent: 16 August 2006 15:36
To: Antlr Interest
Subject: Re: [antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?

Hi Anthony and Michael,

Anthony Youngman wrote:
> 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.
> 
> On Aug 15, 2006, at 1:34 PM, Micheal J wrote:
>> 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?

Thanks for the clarification!  It does seem that my use of the term 
're-license' was incorrect.  However, what I do understand to be true is

that if I use ANTLR in a GPL application that is distributed, the 
"complete work" is governed under this section of the GPL:

     2b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that
     in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
     part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
     parties under the terms of this License.

And this does include linking to the ANTLR library.  The code generated 
by the ANTLR executable is not subject to a license, but linking to the 
runtime library makes it part of my GPL program as far as the FSF is 
concerned.  Although it is certainly debated (I set off an interesting 
thread asking about this situation elsewhere), I must then be able to 
apply the GPL license requirements to the ANTLR library as well (i.e. be

able to distribute the source).  And, it is possible to do so and 
satisfy both the GPL and ANTLR's BSD license.  But, if ANTLR were 
otherwise licensed, say by the 'original' BSD, then I could no longer 
use it in my GPL program because I could not satisfy the requirements of

both licenses.

Now I understand why I didn't go to law school!

Best,
Scott

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