Hello Aaron,
Do you remember me asking about roundup using the
ASCIInator?
The email exchange is below.
Roundup developers are not keen on invoking html2text as a
filter in a
pipeline. They say there would be performance penalties
which is
understandable. They want to be able to import a python
module and use
it directly from within the roundup python code. Are you
happy with
that?
It seems to me that this might violate the GPL. It would
require that
html2text be distributed with roundup otherwise the relevant
roundup
python code would not compile. What is your interpretation
please?
I suppose changing the license to the python software
foundation license
would be out of the question? Is there any chance that you
could change
the html2text license from GPL to LGPL? After all, being
python it is
easy to envisage people wanting to incorporate it as a
python module
into their python programs. Was it you intention to prohibit
this unless
the target program is also released under the GPL? I admit,
this is what
the GPL is for, to ensure that one is not allowed to take a
cutting of
free software and graft it into something that is
proprietary. Roundup
is not proprietary but it does not have a GPL-compatible
license either.
This seems to be an area to me that is somewhat greyer than
when I first
considered it. IMO it would really help clarify things if
you can say
whether or not you want to allow the direct use of html2text
python code
in an open source product that has a permissive license.
Picking the GPL
would suggest that the answer to that question is
"no". In which case it
looks like using html2text in a pipeline would be the only
way to go.
BTW, I am copying the roundup mailing list with this email
so they can
see what is going on....
I must admit, I am not sure why there is yet another open
source license
for python programs. I am relatively new to python. Perhaps
the roundup
people can tell me more about that and why roundup uses the
python
software foundation license. If roundup was changed to use
GPL then
there may be other issues. The way roundup gets tweaked for
particular
environments seems to be by the addition of code and
tweaking of
existing code. This raises questions of whether or not one
is allowed to
do this in a proprietary environment. Roundups permissive
license lets
you. I am not sure that the GPL would. In fact I have a
feeling that it
probably wouldn't.
Andrew Marlow wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Many thanks for making the ASCIInator available. I am
looking to see
> if it can be used in conjunction with another open
source project,
> roundup (http://roundup.sourcef
orge.net). I started to discuss the
> matter on the roundup mailing list. Doubt was expressed
by others
> that the ASCIInator could be used, due to license
issues. Here is
> what was said: ---
>> The license for the Asciinator is GPLv2. This means
that if one is to
>> take a cutting of it the thing into which it is
grafted must also be
>> GPLd. Roundup isn't. It is released under the
python software
>> foundation license which is a BSD-style permissive
license. It is
>> supposedly (according to wikipedia) compatible with
the GPL. However,
>> the GPL does make it clear that when a GPLd work is
incorporated into
>> another piece of s/w, that s/w must have a license
that does not
>> permit the freedoms conferred by the GPL to be
removed. So I think
>> this means that roundup could not incorporate a
modified version of
>> the ASCIInator in its distribution.
>
> I think you're right.
>
>> However, IMO there is no need to modify the
ASCIInator. Roundup can
>> just make use of this. This is permitted. So let's
do that then....
>
> I think that it's allowed to run the binary, i.e., we
can do
> 'subprocess.call(html2txt'). We can't do 'import
html2txt;
> html2text_file(data)', as that would be linking which
is not
> permitted. At least, that's my interpretation.
>
> There's also always the option of asking the author of
html2text to
> also license html2text under the PSF license, or make
an exception to
> the GPL allowing html2text to be used with roundup. ---
>
> I think that there is no need to change the ASCIInator
license. Can
> you confirm please? I anticipate that the ASCII can
simply be invoked
> as a command, in which case it will be running as is,
unmodified and
> not redstributed. Roundup would simply have a
dependency on it.
> Roundup could even have its installation procedure
check whether or
> not ASCIInator is available so it is only used if it is
there. Please
> also say what your thoughts are about any possible
license issues if
> roundup were to use the ASCIInator via a python import.
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew Marlow
> ----
> There is an emerald here the size of a plover's egg!
> Don't top-post
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
> Plain text mails only, please http://www.expita.c
om/nomime.html
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