On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 12:20 AM, Justin Mclean <justinmcl...@me.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > Here is the precise display:
> >
> > Can Apache distribute products under a prohibited ('Category X') license?
> > No (with a couple of exceptions).Yes but only for some common build
> tools.
> >
> > So I go ahead and click "No" because we distribute ALL products under
> ALv2.
> > And the second option is a misdirect because we only distribute inputs to
> > tools, not the tools themselves (afaik).
>
> My reading of [1] (and I could be wrong) was that it allows distribution
> of Category X build tools in ALv2 software.
>
*Dependencies* to build the products. We don't include autoconf itself. We
don't include libtool itself. We depend upon them in the build system, to
generate artifacts that we *distribute* under ALv2.
Normally, distributions are not supposed to *require* a user to install
Cat-X. But when constructing a release from source (which is different from
a release tarball), then a Cat-X tool can be required. Because the user is
making such a choice. That is very different from a tarball user's choice
being surprised by a Cat-X dependency.
Regardless, I have never seen a file Cat-X licensed within a distribution.
