GSoC '09 idea

[Sara Melnick]

I have looked at the licenses and my understanding of it is that GPL  
would require the release of the .h files that are accessed from the  
SDK and that Apple won't allow those .h files to be publicly released.

Sara Melnick

On Apr 1, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Mark Doliner wrote:

> 2009/3/29 Sara Melnick <smelnic2 at u.rochester.edu>:
>> I have an idea that I think would make  great GSoC project, but  
>> I've run
>> into a problem due to licensing and I am interested in suggestions  
>> of either
>> solutions or similar, alternative projects.  I would like to create  
>> a Cocoa
>> Touch port of libpurple that runs without jailbreaking the hardware.
>>  Currently, there exists an iPhone/iPod Touch port but it requires  
>> the
>> hardware to be cracked (I'm not sure what it's written in because I  
>> can't
>> find the source code on the site).  The problem, as I see it, is  
>> that the
>> iPhone SDK Terms of Use essentially dictates that GPL software  
>> cannot be
>> ported to Cocoa Touch.
>> Apple: "If Your Application includes any FOSS, You agree to comply  
>> with all
>> applicable FOSS licensing terms. You also agree not to use any FOSS  
>> in the
>> development of Your Application in such a way that would cause the  
>> non-FOSS
>> portions of the SDK to be subject to any FOSS licensing terms or
>> obligations."
>> GPL: [Complete source code must be available] "For an executable  
>> work,
>> complete source code means all the source code for all modules it  
>> contains,
>> plus any associated interface definition files..."
>> Please let me know if you have any ideas.
>> Sara Melnick
>> University of Rochester: Computer Science '11
>
> I would guess that GPL applications are allowed to use the iPhone SDK
> when running on the phone because it would be considered a part of the
> operating system, and I believe the GPL allows using libraries that
> are considered a part of the OS.  But someone should probably look at
> the two licenses very closely and more some thought into it.
>
> -Mark