[Sussex] Licence help

[Steve Dobson]

Mark

On Sun, Jan 16, 2005 at 11:35:23PM -0000, Mark Harrison wrote:
> I have several bits of software that, over the last year, I've made
> available as a free (as in beer) download.
> 
> Sadly, various "life issues" mean that realistically, I'm not going to be
> able to carry on supporting them (and one, in particular needs updating,
> since one of the protocols it supports has had a major revision.)
> 
> I'd, therefore, like to release them under some kind of free (as in speech)
> licence.
> 
> There is, however, a problem. The software relies on a third-party
> component. That component is not, itself, free. (It is free as in beer for
> non-commercial use only, and not free at all in the source-code sense.)
> 
> Which licence can / should I use?

I would still think about the GPL.  GPL code can be linked against non-free
libraries (all GPL running on Solaris/HP-UX/AIX/WindowXX has to do this).
I would recommend that you put a BIG FAT WARNING that while your software
is "free" the stuff it uses is not.

Steve