Re: IETF and open source license compatibility

[Simon Josefsson <[e-mail]>]

Harald Alvestrand <[e-mail]> writes:

> Simon Josefsson wrote:
>>>
>>> actually that's intended to be permitted by RFC 5377 section 4.2:
>>>
>>> 4.2.  Rights Granted for Quoting from IETF Contributions
>>>
>>>   There is rough consensus that it is useful to permit quoting without
>>>   modification of excerpts from IETF Contributions.  Such excerpts may
>>>   be of any length and in any context.  Translation of quotations is
>>>   also to be permitted.  All such quotations should be attributed
>>>   properly to the IETF and the IETF Contribution from which they are
>>>   taken.
>>>
>>> You're not permitted to modify the text. You are permitted to use it.
>>>     
>>
>> Exactly, and disallowing modifications prevents using the text of an RFC
>> as a comment in implementations licensed under free software licenses.
>>
>> For short excerpts, one can use the text anyway and claim "fair use",
>> but larger excerpts can be useful to quote in comments or documentation
>> and then there is a problem.
> I consider the inability to include immutable text in software
> released under the GPL a bug in the GPL.

Nobody forces you to use the GPL, so if you perceive a problem I suggest
to use another license for your program.  However, the IETF should not
prevent implementers from using the GPL, for the same reasons IETF
should not prevent Microsoft from using its EULA as the license.

> BTW, this means that at least one program I have released under the
> GPL is illegal; it includes the GPL as a part of the source code, and
> since the GPL text is immutable according to the GPL, it is illegal
> (by this logic) to include it in source code, since the source has to
> be free of restrictions upon its modification.

I don't see how that makes the program illegal.  It just makes it harder
for others to redistribute it safely because the licensing information
is unclear.

/Simon