Re: license issue

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Christoph Höger wrote:
> Hi all (especially John),
> I've just read that:
> http://blog.pierlux.com/2009/05/12/pythons-hidden-poissoned-apple-for-gpl-applications/en/
> 
> and it seems
> 
> a) to be valid
> b) to apply to offlineimap as well
> 
> any comments?

I have not made an extensive analysis, BUT...

the GPL is mainly concerned with linking.  OfflineIMAP is written in
100% Python, and as such does not link to OpenSSL.  My belief is that it
is Python that links to OpenSSL, and thus Python that is bound by that
restriction, not OfflineIMAP.

OfflineIMAP uses a fairly simplistic Python API.  IIRC, it is not even
documented whether that API is guaranteed to correspond to OpenSSL.

Further, the blog post seems fairly non-credible.  The cited license
snippet appears to apply to people the distribute OpenSSL itself, not
link to it.  Again, OfflineIMAP doesn't link to it.

-- John