[Ethereal-dev] Possible license problem with Ethereal and OpenSSL

[ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I don't know the specifics but the following is included in the
license for fetchmail 5.8.17 (5.9.0 most recent version):

  Specific permission is granted for this code to be linked to OpenSSL
  (this is necessary becuse the OpenSSL license is not GPL-compatible).

Because ethereal is GPL, I presume it is not legal to redistribute
binaries linked against OpenSSL. Any problems adding the above clause
to the ethereal license to make it legal?

BTW, according to:
  http://www.fsf.org/licenses/license-list.html#TOCSoftwareLicenses
I believe the incompatibility is the result of the advertising clause
in the OpenSSL license.

According to packet-ssl.c, the copyright owner is:
/* packet-ssl.c
 * Routines for ssl dissection
 * Copyright (c) 2000-2001, Scott Renfro <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>

so he would need to give his permission for the license change. I don't
know if it is sufficient for only packet-ssl.c to have the license
change mentioned above.

Also, I think this applies only to those redistributing Ethereal with
OpenSSL compiled in but ya'll should double check anyway.

-- 
albert chin (china@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)