Re: [pkcs11] Groups - PKCS #11 V2.30 header files uploaded

[Tim Hudson <tjh@cryptsoft.com>]

(had to extract the email from my spam folder ...)

On 30/05/2013 11:00 AM, Wan-Teh Chang wrote:
>  This license is believed to be incompatible with the GPL.

To be more complete in the statement - some people claim that it might be incompatible with the GPL but no one has actually demonstrated how or why this is actually the case and there has been no actual legal view point from anyone who is a lawyer in the open source community.

The original contributions are made under the normal OASIS terms and if they end up as a group decision included in OASIS specifications they will be covered by the OASIS IPR terms and conditions. For this TC that is RF under RAND - see https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/ipr

This was discussed at length in the lead up to the formation of the technical committee and during the first face to face meeting back in early March.

And NSS includes the original header files with (and I quote) exactly the same license text (from pkcs11t.h):

/* License to copy and use this software is granted provided that it is
 * identified as "RSA Security Inc. PKCS #11 Cryptographic Token Interface
 * (Cryptoki)" in all material mentioning or referencing this software.

 * License is also granted to make and use derivative works provided that
 * such works are identified as "derived from the RSA Security Inc. PKCS #11
 * Cryptographic Token Interface (Cryptoki)" in all material mentioning or
 * referencing the derived work.

 * RSA Security Inc. makes no representations concerning either the
 * merchantability of this software or the suitability of this software for
 * any particular purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied
 * warranty of any kind.
 */

So if you feel certain that this is incompatible with the GPL then you'll find that all NSS (and NSPR) derived code is also incompatible - a conclusion you'll find is not something that many would agree with.

Tim.