Allow linking against OpenSSL? (Was Re: Debian package for freeradius_postgresql module)

Greetings FreeRadius people,

This discussion started on the postgresql's "pgsql-general" mailing
list. The problem here is that the freeradius-postgresql package needs to
link against libpgsql, which means that it may be indirectly linked against
openssl. There is a conflict between OpenSSL's BSD license and the GPL which
means that it's not legal to distribute a copy of GPL code that is linked in
this way. It appears that several other GPL apps have added a special clause
to their license that allows them to be linked against OpenSSL.

Could this be done for freeradius/freeradius-postgresql as well?
This could pave the way towards enhanced freeradius support in Debian,
specifically the addition of freeradius-postgresql to Debian's mainline.

For your reference, here is the start of the thread on the
pgsql-general list that got us to this point:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-04/msg00247.php

Thanks,
Tyler

Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> > I don't think so. I got curious and looked at what's on my Ubuntu
> > system: Courier IMAP is GPL with an additional clause that explicitly
> > allows linking with OpenSSL; Postfix has an Apache-ish license; Exim
> > is GPL and also explicitly allows linking with OpenSSL; Cyrus IMAP is
> > BSDish; Apache is non-GPL... I can't think offhand of anything that
> > is GPL and links with OpenSSL without an explicit clause permitting
> > same.
> Hm. So can we lobby freeradius to tweak their license similarly?