GPL compability

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd start a topic here regarding a possibility of releasing Vibe Streamer open source. The main reason for these thoughts I that I don't really have all the time to develop it further as I'd really like to. For that, open source is a great option.

If I were to release it open source, I'd go with GPL. But there is one issue there. OpenSSL, which Vibe Streamer uses for SSL, is not GPL compatible. I've read some topics on whether you can get around it or not, but I'm not really sure if it's possible for Vibe Streamer.

So I thought I'd bring up the topic and see if there are anyone out there that can shed some light on this, and help out through a possible open source release of Vibe Streamer.

For other libraries/technologies Vibe Streamer uses, check out the credits page http//www.vibestreamer.com/credits.php

As is stated here[/url2y75ndin]; you can either write a license exemption, or you can opt to use a different library. [url=http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/2y75ndin]GNU TLS[/url2y75ndin] and [url=http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/2y75ndin]Mozilla NSS[/url2y75ndin] are popular alternatives.

I'm pretty much ignorant of the differences in licenses so I'll just ask the question that comes to mind; Why not release it under the same license that OpenSSL is under?

Also, wasn't there some library that you were using for the Java-script or web interface that you had to pay for? I remember that caused a delay in releasing version 3 I think. If so how would that work with open sourcing the code?

As I said I know nothing about the intricacies of licenses so if my questions sound ignorant then that's why.

Well, I'm not an expert in licensing questions either, but I'm pretty comfortable with GPL, and all other libraries i use for Vibe Streamer are well compatible with GPL. ExtJS is also GPL compatible, but the problem there was when releasing it non-open source, where ExtJS required me to purchase a commercial version in order to use it.

Anyhow, the link that Qard posted is a bit interesting. Although the author states that he isn't an expert either so I'm not 100% sure the exception he uses covers the GPL compability. But I'm going to look around for other GPL-licenses software that uses OpenSSL to see how they're worked around it.

License exemptions do work, but they have to be written very explicitly. The best place to learn about cross-license issues would probably be the Open Source Initiative mailing lists[/url2xm1vyx1].