Thread: GNU GPL license in some of the source files

On 20/05/14 02:21, Chris Mildebrandt wrote:
> I just downloaded the source for 2.5.3
> (http://initd.org/psycopg/tarballs/PSYCOPG-2-5/psycopg2-2.5.3.tar.gz)
> and looked through the sources. The following files seem to be under a
> GPL license:
>
> examples/copy_from.py
> examples/lobject.py
> examples/copy_to.py
> scripts/buildtypes.py
> scripts/make_errorcodes.py
> scripts/refcounter.py
>
> And there's a copy of the GNU GPL:
> doc/COPYING
>
> We're very sensitive to GPL code here and would appreciate some
> clarification about these files. Was this just an oversight? And is
> there a plan to provide a source release without GPL code in the package?

I don't remember about scripts/refcounter.py and
scripts/make_errorcodes.py, but I am the original author of the other
files and they are supposed to be under the same license as the rest of
psycopg2 code.

federico

--
Federico Di Gregorio                         federico.digregorio@dndg.it
Di Nunzio & Di Gregorio srl                               http://dndg.it
  Qu'est ce que la folie? Juste un sentiment de liberté si
   fort qu'on en oublie ce qui nous rattache au monde... -- J. de Loctra

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 1:21 AM, Chris Mildebrandt
<chris@woodenrhino.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just downloaded the source for 2.5.3
> (http://initd.org/psycopg/tarballs/PSYCOPG-2-5/psycopg2-2.5.3.tar.gz) and
> looked through the sources. The following files seem to be under a GPL
> license:
>
> examples/copy_from.py
> examples/lobject.py
> examples/copy_to.py
> scripts/buildtypes.py
> scripts/make_errorcodes.py
> scripts/refcounter.py

It is an oversight: psycopg license was changed to LGPL about 4 years
ago. Also note that these scripts are only used to develop/test
psycopg and not to build/use it: they are not installed in a system
(where e.g. "python setup.py install" is performed).


> And there's a copy of the GNU GPL:
> doc/COPYING

This file was dropped from the repos
(https://github.com/psycopg/psycopg2/commit/04c09b7b), but apparently
only from the master branch: it still appears in the maint_2_5 branch
(probably because shortly after releasing 2.5 I started clearing up
the package content for the future 2.6 release). It is an oversight
too: only COPYING.LESSER applies.


> We're very sensitive to GPL code here and would appreciate some
> clarification about these files. Was this just an oversight? And is there a
> plan to provide a source release without GPL code in the package?

Yes, they are an incomplete rewording from the GPL to LGPL switch:
these files probably got less attention for the above reason: if you
compile psycopg with "python setup.py build" they don't end up in the
resulting package. I think we can adjust the wording in the next dot
release no problem. If you provide a patch changing the file headers
it would be helpful too.


-- Daniele

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Chris Mildebrandt
<chris@woodenrhino.com> wrote:
> Hi Daniele,
>
> Thanks for the clarification on the licensing for psycopg. If you can give
> some quick high-level steps on how to submit a patch, I can do that for the
> files mentioned below.

If you want to go through git you can fork the git repos at
https://github.com/psycopg/psycopg2/ (check out the tag 2_5_3), change
the 6 files above and remove the unwanted license, commit then send a
pull request. Otherwise just send me a diff via email of the 6 changed
files and I'll apply it.

-- Daniele

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 4:49 PM, Chris Mildebrandt
<chris@woodenrhino.com> wrote:
> There's a file (sandbox/test-psycopg2-datetime-systematic.py) that has the
> following lines:
>
> # $Source:
> /sources/gnumed/gnumed/gnumed/client/testing/test-psycopg2-datetime-systematic.py,v
> $
> __version__ = "$Revision: 1.1 $"
> __author__  = "K.Hilbert <Karsten.Hilbert@gmx.net>"
> __license__ = 'GPL (details at http://www.gnu.org)'
> # =======================================================================
>
> How would you like to handle this? Usually we would remove the file or get
> written permission from the author to change the license.

FWIW Karsten has contributed much more than that file to psycopg and
was definitely contacted when we changed license.

I think you can just drop that file. It was testing an issue we had in
the past with historical timezones with seconds in the offset (see
http://initd.org/psycopg/docs/usage.html#time-zones-handling) and is
not regularly run. A test for the same issue was added to the test
suite (https://github.com/psycopg/psycopg2/commit/305d86f3) and that
one gets regularly run instead.

-- Daniele

There's a file (sandbox/test-psycopg2-datetime-systematic.py) that has the following lines:
 

# $Source: /sources/gnumed/gnumed/gnumed/client/testing/test-psycopg2-datetime-systematic.py,v $
__version__ = "$Revision: 1.1 $"
__author__  = "K.Hilbert <Karsten.Hilbert@gmx.net>"
__license__ = 'GPL (details at http://www.gnu.org[http://www.gnu.org])'
# =======================================================================
 
How would you like to handle this?



You can change it to

   license="LGPL with exceptions or ZPL",



Karsten Hilbert