GNU libc currently contains an implementation of RPC (in the ‘sunrpc/’ directory) under the following copyright and license: Copyright (C) 1984, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun RPC is a product of Sun Microsystems, Inc. and is provided for unrestricted use provided that this legend is included on all tape media and as a part of the software program in whole or part. Users may copy or modify Sun RPC without charge, but are not authorized to license or distribute it to anyone else except as part of a product or program developed by the user. SUN RPC IS PROVIDED AS IS WITH NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE PRACTICE. Sun RPC is provided with no support and without any obligation on the part of Sun Microsystems, Inc. to assist in its use, correction, modification or enhancement. SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHTS, TRADE SECRETS OR ANY PATENTS BY SUN RPC OR ANY PART THEREOF. In no event will Sun Microsystems, Inc. be liable for any lost revenue or profits or other special, indirect and consequential damages, even if Sun has been advised of the possibility of such damages. The clause granting redistribution, Users may copy or modify Sun RPC without charge, but are not authorized to license or distribute it to anyone else except as part of a product or program developed by the user. does not seem to meet the Free Software Definition. It forbids redistribution except “as part of a product or program developed by the user”. So recipients who have not developed the “program or product” may not redistribute the work under this license. Perhaps the simplest resolution for this would be for the GNU libc maintainers to receive a different, free license for this code from Sun, like the GNU GPLv2 or GPLv3.
> receive a different, free license for this code from Sun, like the GNU GPLv2 or GPLv3 The above licenses may be incompatible with releasing the glibc work as a whole under the LGPL. Receiving the RPC code from Sun under a compatible license (ideally, the same license terms as the bulk of glibc itself) would be best.
Suspended until some legal people picks this up.
This has been fixed in the git tree. Marking the bug as fixed.
> This has been fixed in the git tree. I'm glad to know that. Can you please put a link to the specific change in the tree which fixes this bug?
This looks like git commit 9bbd0ddc: https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=commit;h=9bbd0ddc
(In reply to Allan McRae from comment #5) > This looks like git commit 9bbd0ddc: > https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=commit;h=9bbd0ddc Great. So the license terms for Sun RPC are now a BSD-style 3-clause (attribution, no-endorsement) license, which meets the free software definition. Thank you to everyone involved in getting this software under free-software terms!