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| 1 | +HAPROXY's license - 2006/06/15 |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Historically, haproxy has been covered by GPL version 2. However, an issue |
| 4 | +appeared in GPL which will prevent external non-GPL code from being built |
| 5 | +using the headers provided with haproxy. My long-term goal is to build a core |
| 6 | +system able to load external modules to support specific application protocols. |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +Since some protocols are found in rare environments (finance, industry, ...), |
| 9 | +some of them might be accessible only after signing an NDA. Enforcing GPL on |
| 10 | +such modules would only prevent them from ever being implemented, while not |
| 11 | +providing anything useful to ordinary users. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +For this reason, I *want* to be able to support binary only external modules |
| 14 | +when needed, with a GPL core and GPL modules for standard protocols, so that |
| 15 | +people fixing bugs don't keep them secretly to try to stay over competition. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +The solution was then to apply the LGPL license to the exportable include |
| 18 | +files, while keeping the GPL for all the rest. This way, it still is mandatory |
| 19 | +to redistribute modified code under customer request, but at the same time, it |
| 20 | +is expressly permitted to write, compile, link and load non-GPL code using the |
| 21 | +LGPL header files and not to distribute them if it causes a legal problem. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Of course, users are strongly encouraged to continue the work under GPL as long |
| 24 | +as possible, since this license has allowed useful enhancements, contributions |
| 25 | +and fixes from talented people around the world. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +Due to the incompatibility between the GPL and the OpenSSL licence, you must |
| 28 | +apply the GPL/LGPL licence with the following exception: |
| 29 | +This program is released under the GPL with the additional exemption that |
| 30 | +compiling, linking, and/or using OpenSSL is allowed. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +The text of the licenses lies in the "doc" directory. All the files provided in |
| 33 | +this package are covered by the GPL unless expressly stated otherwise in them. |
| 34 | +Every patch or contribution provided by external people will by default comply |
| 35 | +with the license of the files it affects, or be rejected. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | + |
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