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MIT licenses might not be allowed #178

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wagenrace opened this issue Jan 8, 2023 · 2 comments
Open

MIT licenses might not be allowed #178

wagenrace opened this issue Jan 8, 2023 · 2 comments

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@wagenrace
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Hey, I see this project depends on Pylint but that package is released under GPL license meaning packages using it (like this one) need to have a GPL license but MIT is not

Source: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL

@tommorris
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From your link:

The software modules that link with the library may be under various GPL compatible licenses, but the work as a whole must be licensed under the GPL.

The MIT license is a GPL compatible license, see GNU GPL compatible licenses (most people routinely call it the MIT license, GNU call it the "Expat" license, it's the same thing. See Wikipedia.

@wagenrace
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If I understand the GNU GPL-compatible license correctly it is the other way around. You can use MIT-licensed software within a GPL-licensed project, but not the other way around, see Wikipedia

Code licensed under several other licenses can be combined with a program under the GPL without conflict, as long as the combination of restrictions on the work as a whole does not put any additional restrictions beyond what GPL allows

The idea is that a more restrictive license (like GPL) can use part of a less restrictive license (like MIT) but not the other way around; otherwise, you can remove software restrictions by writing a tin wrapper with a different license.

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