[collectd] VMware Guest SDK plugin for Collectd 5

[Keith Chambers]

I'm not a licensing expert either.  ;-)


vmGuestLib.h is part of the 'Open Virtual Machine Tools' hosted here:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-vm-tools/

This is the license displayed at the top of the vmGuestLib.h file.


    /*********************************************************
     * Copyright (C) 2003-2008 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.
     *
     * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
     * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
     * by the Free Software Foundation version 2.1 and no later version.
     *
     * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
     * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
     * or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the Lesser GNU General Public
     * License for more details.
     *
     * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
     * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
     * 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA.
     *
     *********************************************************/


Would it be possible to license this plugin with the standard Collectd GPL2 license?




----- Original Message -----
From: Sebastian Harl <sh at tokkee.org>
To: Keith Chambers <chambers_keith at yahoo.com>
Cc: "collectd at verplant.org" <collectd at verplant.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: [collectd] VMware Guest SDK plugin for Collectd 5

Hi,

On Wed, Aug 03, 2011 at 01:23:14PM -0700, Keith Chambers wrote:
> I understand that this will not get merged in to the mainline due to
> the associated VMware licensing. 

I haven't had a look at your code yet, but I'd like to comment this:
unless the VMWare license explicitly forbids to do so, the plugin may
either be put under a BSD-like license (which permits linking with
proprietary stuff) or the GPL using the "linking exception" [1].

Note, though, that this is a license change, so all authors and
contributors of the plugin have to agree about it.

HTH,
Sebastian

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL_linking_exception>

-- 
Sebastian "tokkee" Harl +++ GnuPG-ID: 0x8501C7FC +++ http://tokkee.org/

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.         -- Benjamin Franklin