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Fri Mar 7 15:32:22 PST 2014


challenged" --- and nobody seems to be willing to challenge it, so it's
ignored. I think this actually has legal implications, insofar as those
kinds of restrictions have to be enforced or challenged for them to stand
and ignoring a known violation can lead a court to conclude that the
restriction is not actually in effect; but talk to an IP lawyer about the
details. And *don't* try to rely on it, because it's only "real" if it
stands up in court; it's the sword of Damocles until then.

Note also that MacPorts has some constraints that others may not: if
someone *does* challenge it, Apple might as a provider of hardware and
services for MacPorts be caught by the blowback. As I understand it, the
connection is a bit closer than that of people providing hardware or
hosting for, say, Debian (although not a whole *lot* closer) --- but
sometimes these do have legal implications. So we need to be somewhat more
careful about license conflicts, just in case.

-- 
brandon s allbery kf8nh                               sine nomine associates
allbery.b at gmail.com                                  ballbery at sinenomine.net
unix, openafs, kerberos, infrastructure, xmonad        http://sinenomine.net

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On T=
ue, Mar 25, 2014 at 8:44 AM, Nicolas Pavillon <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a href=
=3D"mailto:pavillon.nicolas at gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">pavillon.nicolas at g=
mail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1p=
x #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class=3D"">&gt; How come Linux distribu=
tions can provide binary packages for kdepim?<br>
</div>I am not sure about that. The thing is that most of openssl use from =
KDE is swept under the carpet by avoiding any standard linking (only linkin=
g at runtime is used), and most project are moving to Qt SSL module instead=
. Not that anything of it changes the license restrictions.<br>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>For what it&#39;s worth, there *are* rare =
people in the Linux community who won&#39;t use KDE because they do not tru=
st license conflicts like this; KDE has a history of them.</div><div><br>
</div><div>From a practical standpoint, though, it&#39;s effectively &quot;=
legal until challenged&quot; --- and nobody seems to be willing to challeng=
e it, so it&#39;s ignored. I think this actually has legal implications, in=
sofar as those kinds of restrictions have to be enforced or challenged for =
them to stand and ignoring a known violation can lead a court to conclude t=
hat the restriction is not actually in effect; but talk to an IP lawyer abo=
ut the details. And *don&#39;t* try to rely on it, because it&#39;s only &q=
uot;real&quot; if it stands up in court; it&#39;s the sword of Damocles unt=
il then.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Note also that MacPorts has some constraints that other=
s may not: if someone *does* challenge it, Apple might as a provider of har=
dware and services for MacPorts be caught by the blowback. As I understand =
it, the connection is a bit closer than that of people providing hardware o=
r hosting for, say, Debian (although not a whole *lot* closer) --- but some=
times these do have legal implications. So we need to be somewhat more care=
ful about license conflicts, just in case.</div>
<div><br></div></div>-- <br><div dir=3D"ltr"><div>brandon s allbery kf8nh =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 sine nomine associates</div><div><a href=3D=
"mailto:allbery.b at gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">allbery.b at gmail.com</a> =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0<a href=3D"mailto:ballbery at sinenom=
ine.net" target=3D"_blank">ballbery at sinenomine.net</a></div>
<div>unix, openafs, kerberos, infrastructure, xmonad =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0<a href=3D"http://sinenomine.net" target=3D"_blank">http://sinenomine=
.net</a></div></div>
</div></div>

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