GPL3 Re: packaging

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 08:57:35PM +0000, Glynn Clements wrote:
> Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > Except for Bison, for good reasons that I understand.
> 
> FWIW, bison >= 2.2 has essentially the same exception as gcc etc
> regarding code which is copied into the output:
> 
> /* As a special exception, you may create a larger work that contains
>    part or all of the Bison parser skeleton and distribute that work
>    under terms of your choice, so long as that work isn't itself a
>    parser generator using the skeleton or a modified version thereof
>    as a parser skeleton.  Alternatively, if you modify or redistribute
>    the parser skeleton itself, you may (at your option) remove this
>    special exception, which will cause the skeleton and the resulting
>    Bison output files to be licensed under the GNU General Public
>    License without this special exception.
> 
> For versions between 1.24 and 2.2, the exception only applies to
> LALR(1) parsers using C (i.e. not GLR parsers or C++ parsers).

Intriguing.

Was a rationale given for this, as FSF has occasionally provided for
other such relicensings/relaxations of restrictions?  The license
lawyer in me wants to know...

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
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