Re: [Python-Dev] (libffi) Re: Copyright issue

[Tom Tromey <tromey at redhat dot com>]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin v Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de> writes:

Martin> Instead, it means we need a build process for libffi which is
Martin> independent of autoconf (or convince the authors of aclocal.m4 to
Martin> relicense it, but that is likely futile).

Martin> As a matter of fact, Python itself uses autoconf, but without
Martin> aclocal.m4. autoconf generates configure for us, but configure is
Martin> not GPL-licensed, even though it is generated through autoconf:

Martin> # Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Martin> # This configure script is free software; the Free Software Foundation
Martin> # gives unlimited permission to copy, distribute and modify it.

libffi's aclocal.m4 is created by the aclocal tool, which stitches it
together from different .m4 files it finds.

For m4 files that are part of the automake distribution, the intent
was explicitly to have the same more liberal permissions that apply to
'configure'.  If you can't find a statement saying this somewhere,
then I believe that to be a bug (I see one at the top of aclocal.m4
FWIW -- this applies to all the automake-shipped m4 files).  I know I
explicitly brought this up with RMS at some point in the distant past
and got the needed permissions to make this so.

However, libffi probably also uses macros from other places -- at
least GCC and libtool.  I don't know the legal status of these.

The GCC macros are probably not really necessary for your situation.
The libffi configury in the GCC tree is set up to build libffi as a
target library.  Most likely, you don't need this.

libffi/acinclude.m4 needs some license clarification.
It isn't clear who owns this code :-(

I think a real fix is probably not out of reach, should you wish to
pursue it.

Tom