[OLPC library] Licensing for One Laptop Per Child

Chris Ball cjb at laptop.org
Tue Feb 5 17:29:57 EST 2008


Hi Edward/library list,

   >> We spoke last week when you were on Forum with Michael Krasny. I
   >> asked about licensing The Art of Learning for use on the One
   >> Laptop Per Child XO computer in developing countries. We would
   >> want to work out a license for free distribution to poor
   >> students in developing countries, without disturbing your
   >> copyright and sales in richer countries. We would also want
   >> permission for people in developing countries to create their
   >> own translations, in the same way the XO laptop software is
   >> localized, and other content translated. 

Thanks for working on this!  I'm surprised to see a Developing Nations
License analog being proposed here, however; this conflicts with the
general move away from licenses that don't provide at least worldwide
non-commercial sharing, and also conflicts with OLPC's thoughts on
software freedom, though they don't have to apply here:

   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_on_free/open_source_software

   * Must allow these rights to be passed on along with the software.
     This means that we must not provide a license specific to the $100
     Laptop project or organization or its customers. [..]

Do we accept content for the XO under licenses that don't provide for at
least non-commercial sharing?

Thanks,

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb at laptop.org>


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