[cairo] Pango License

[David Young]

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 04:57:28PM -0800, Bill Spitzak wrote:
> Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> 
> >That said, I guess there is room for a ELGPL (Even Lesser GPL) that only
> >requires making your modifications available but doesn't have the replacement
> >requirements.
> 
> That's been suggested many times. A well-defined name would
> certainly help, like ELGPL or EGPL or EPL. The only common term I
> have seen is "GPL with a linking exception". One is the "GNU
> Classpath exception":
> 
> "As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give
> you permission to link this library with independent modules to
> produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these
> independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting
> executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet,
> for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the
> license of that module. An independent module is a module which is
> not derived from or based on this library. If you modify this
> library, you may extend this exception to your version of the
> library, but you are not obliged to do so. If you do not wish to do
> so, delete this exception statement from your version."

This one exception is more than half the length of an entire 2-clause
BSD license.  The GPL is a lengthy, complicated agreement (it starts
with a preamble, for goodness' sake) without much corresponding U.S.
case law.  Is it any wonder that lawyers are leery of the GPL and its
derivatives? :-)

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933