Legal Questions

* Do I need patent licenses to use OpenSSL?

For information on intellectual property rights, please consult a lawyer.
The OpenSSL team does not offer legal advice.

You can configure OpenSSL so as not to use IDEA, MDC2 and RC5 by using
<PRE>
    ./config no-idea no-mdc2 no-rc5
</PRE>

* Can I use OpenSSL with GPL software?

On many systems including the major Linux and BSD distributions, yes (the
GPL does not place restrictions on using libraries that are part of the
normal operating system distribution).

On other systems, the situation is less clear. Some GPL software copyright
holders claim that you infringe on their rights if you use OpenSSL with
their software on operating systems that don't normally include OpenSSL.

If you develop open source software that uses OpenSSL, you may find it
useful to choose an other license than the GPL, or state explicitly that
"This program is released under the GPL with the additional exemption that
compiling, linking, and/or using OpenSSL is allowed."  If you are using
GPL software developed by others, you may want to ask the copyright holder
for permission to use their software with OpenSSL.