[Haskell-cafe] containers license issue

[David Thomas]

Right. If either of the following hold, you should be able to carry on as
you were (but double check with your lawyer):

1) The algorithm is borrowed but the code was not copied.  In this case,
copyright doesn't cover it, and the GPL is inapplicable.  (Patents could
conceivably be an issue, but no more so than if it was BSD code).

2) If you are not going to be distributing the code - either it is used for
internal tools or in the backend of a networked service (which the GPL does
not treat as distribution, as distinct from the AGPL).

If a sizable chunk of actual code was copied, then the containers package
would have to be GPL, and if you are using the library and distribute
programs built with it then those programs must be GPL as well.


On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Vo Minh Thu <noteed at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2012/12/12 Dmitry Kulagin <dmitry.kulagin at gmail.com>:
> > Hi Cafe,
> >
> > I am faced with unpleasant problem. The lawyer of my company checked
> sources
> > of containers package and found out that it refers to some GPL-library.
> >
> > Here is quote:
> > "The algorithm is derived from Jorg Arndt's FXT library"
> > in file Data/IntMap/Base.hs
> >
> > The problem is that FXT library is GPL and thus containers package can
> not
> > be considered as BSD3. And it means that it can not be used in my case
> > (closed source software).
> >
> > Is this logic actually correct and containers should be considered as
> GPL?
> >
> > The package is widely used by other packages and the only way I see right
> > now is to fix sources to reimplement this functionality, which is not
> good
> > option.
>
> GPL covers code, not algorithms.
>
> Beside, you can use GPL in closed-source code. GPL forces you to make
> the source available when you distribute the software, but if you
> don't distribute the software, there is nothing wrong to use GPL and
> not make your code available.
>
> HTH, IANAL,
> Thu
>
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