[Sussex] [From Debian-uk] Sun through the Looking Glass

[Steve Dobson]

Geoff

Geoffie-Baby wrote:
> Stevie the wonder dog said:
> >You are, of course, correct.  I knew this but wasn't thinking straight.
> > 
> >
> You were thinking bent then?

Must be :-)

> >This is just Sun being non-free again.  
> >
> Well.. yes or no.. what are the proprietary libraries it depends on - 
> remembering of course that Sun are now making moves to GPL Slowaris 
> (I'll believe it when I see it).

Java libs - see the original post.
 
> >It appears to me that about the 
> >only distro that can "ship" this is Gentoo - as binary distribution is
> >prohibited -- the GPL code is linked to non-free libraries.
> >
> >Does Gentoo do anything to stop people building software that is non-free
> >in this way?  After all the licensing of the dependants may well stop 
> >the distribution of binary images without a license from Sun.
> >
> 
> Erm... like what?  I mean, if there was a license issue then Gentoo 
> wouldn't include an e-build for it - but Gentoo does include binary only 
> builds of some things where source is not available.  Gentoo isn't as 
> _pure_ as Debian.

Sun only allows Java to be downloaded from it's sight.  So an e-build could
pull the source for these Java libs from Sun's site.  But the license may not
allow distribution (most of Sun's "free" license do not).  Anyone wanting 
to sell a Gentoo system that had build such source would need to go to Sun to
get a distribution license.

Steve D