Re: Licensing and the client/server divide [was Re: License formixminion dist]

[Nick Mathewson <nickm@alum.mit.edu>]

On Tue, 2002-04-23 at 17:53, Zooko wrote:
> 
> Okay I think I understand the client/server distinction you mean: extending 
> the server means sending or receiving Node-to-Node traffic or processing such 
> traffic while it is en route (not to or from you as an endpoint).  *Using* the 
> server -- acting as a client -- means sending or receiving messages.
> 
> The thing is, the way to act as a client is to be dynamically linked to the 
> core code of your node and invoke its Python functions, right?  So if the code 
> code is GPL'ed then you can't ship proprietary client code.  We could add a 
> specific exemption to the GPL for code that uses only the client API (which 
> doesn't offer any way to examine or manipulate en route traffic).

To clarify again, I'm proposing that the server be GPL'd, and that the
client code be LGPL'd or BSD'd.  Code shared between them should be
LGPL'd or BSD'd.  By definition, server code will be the code you don't
need to link to in order to send/receive messages.

-- 
Nick