Begin forwarded message:
From: Paolo Bonzini <bonzini@gnu.org> Date: October 12, 2010 10:43:25 AM GMT+02:00 To: "Fitzell, Julian" <jfitzell@cincom.com> Cc: stephane.ducasse@inria.fr, BSchwab@anest.ufl.edu, paolo.bonzini@usi.ch Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] License question
On 10/12/2010 10:37 AM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
It's tricky terrain, but the FSF itself did it multiple times with its "provide a free replacement for a non-free package" policy. It's one of the few areas in which you'll hear me saying their evaluation criteria is biased ("if you use this to make a free derivative it's fine, if you use this to make a non-copyleft derivative it's not").
However, in this case it doesn't apply. What I suggested is to copy the API of an existing non-copyleft package (Didier Besset's numerical methods) and use it in the GPL'd bindings that BSchwab (I think) wrote for GSL.
Hmm, an old post suggests that the code from numerical methods is under the LGPL. So, this is not a feasible way to get it under MIT.
Paolo