2015-08-12 13:26 GMT+02:00 Ken Birman <k...@cs.cornell.edu>: > Hi guys, > > > > I’ve long been a fan of the Mingw work and GCC more broadly, but the > obligatory copyleft language in the threads subpackage for the most recent > release is a significant issue that will force me to shift towards Clang or > off of C++ 11 entirely: I’m porting a reliable data replication package to > C++ 11 but my users include companies that can’t accept the GCC copyleft > license. > > > > Is it really necessary to force this copyleft language on your users? And > why is the license language hidden this way in a sub-library of the main > platform? Seems sneaky and very unlike the historical GCC approach. > > > > So obviously it isn’t up to a user to tell the developers how to run their > show. But I do want to gently push back and say that some of us really > prefer to make decisions knowingly, and to have choices. This particularly > licensing scheme is sneaky and gives no choice at all. >
The GCC runtime libraries (libgcc and libstdc++) have always had the GPL with runtime exception. The MinGW-w64 CRT has always been a combination of "Public Domain"/ZPL, with the DirectX headers imported from Wine as LGPL. The latter I believe (I'm not a lawyer) has no influence on how you can use applications built with them (cfr. old Eigen version's use of the LGPL as described here: http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Licensing_FAQ&oldid=1117). The current various license files are these: http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/mingw-w64/ci/master/tree/mingw-w64-headers/direct-x/COPYING.LIB http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/mingw-w64/ci/master/tree/COPYING http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/mingw-w64/ci/master/tree/DISCLAIMER http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/mingw-w64/ci/master/tree/mingw-w64-libraries/winpthreads/COPYING If I understand you correctly, you're talking about the winpthreads license, which is a BSD-style license, which only requires you to keep the (short) disclaimer in anything that uses it. Additionally, if you're in a no-Public Domain country (or if there are really parts licensed under the ZPL exclusively, I haven't checked), you'll need to keep the ZPL license text as well. I don't see how either would prevent businesses from using your software. That being said, I don't see how the GPL would prevent businesses from using your software (especially if it's a standalone application). Note that Clang is also licensed under a BSD style license ( http://opensource.org/licenses/UoI-NCSA.php), and you'll need to include the disclaimer in that case as well... Now, if you're using GCC internals, you're bound by the GPL, but that's GCC's "fault", not MinGW-w64's! Hope I cleared something up for you, if not, please be more specific. Cheers, Ruben
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