Re: Pango licensing problem?

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

FreeType is dual licensed under GPL and the FreeType license,
so there is no problem using it with GPL code.

Also note that that the code in pango/opentype is only 
ever used if you are using FreeType as well, so the fact 
that it is under GPL/FreeType license instead of LGPL imposes 
no additional restrictions on the person using Pango.

(Yes, I need to fix the problem with the license not being
included.)

Regards,
                                        Owen

Roozbeh Pournader <roozbeh sharif edu> writes:

> I am having some problems with Pango licensing. Pango 1.0.4's
> 'pango/opentype/README' tells that the license for files in the
> 'pango/opentype' subtree are under a license that is in the file
> 'freetype-license.txt'. But there is no trace of the file anywhere.
> 
> More investigation. In the same directory, 'pango/opentype/ftxgsub.c'
> mentions:
> 
>  *  This file is part of the FreeType project, and may only be used
>  *  modified and distributed under the terms of the FreeType project
>  *  license, LICENSE.TXT.  By continuing to use, modify, or distribute
>  *  this file you indicate that you have read the license and
>  *  understand and accept it fully.
> 
> Of course there is no such file named as 'LICENSE.TXT' either. So this
> should be the FreeType project license. I check the GNU software licenses
> page at <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html> to find about the
> license and its GPL-compatiblity. It mentions:
> 
>    The FreeType license
> 
>       The FreeType license is a non-copyleft free software license which 
>       is incompatible with the GPL for technical reasons.
> 
> I guess this is a very bad problem. In my reading, this means that let
> alone Pango is not completely LGPL, one may not dynamically or statically
> link it with GPL software. :-((
> 
> I really hope that I'm missing some point. Owen?
>