[Server-devel] [XSCE] copyright and licensing

[Tim Moody]

My original question had nothing to do with forking IIAB or using its code, but rather sought it as a model for including licensing in the code I write so as to make it usable by others.  In addition to choosing different licenses, the IIAB strategy is to include a license only at the top level of the tree, whereas OLPC had a license at the top of each module.

Having said all that, I think IIAB has modules that could be of interest to developers outside of IIAB as a whole.

Tim

From: Braddock Gaskill 
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2014 7:20 PM
To: xsce-devel at googlegroups.com 
Cc: server-devel 
Subject: Re: [XSCE] copyright and licensing

You don't need our (IIAB) permission to relicense our software under GPL or AGPL because the BSD 2 clause license we are using is compatible with GPL forks.  BSD is gives more rights than GPL. 

That said, I'd strongly prefer no one forks our code base in that way and instead contribute back to the core IIAB project software (under a BSD license).

There is no reason BSD components and GPL components cannot co-exist, as they do everywhere else, assuming basic linking hygiene is used.  If you don't understand this post please don't make licensing decisions.

-braddock

On Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Anish Mangal <anishmangal2002 at gmail.com> wrote:

  GPL or AGPL? Can/Should we ask the IIAB maintainers and contributors for permission to license under GPL if it's not too complicated?

  On Oct 31, 2014 8:52 PM, "Tim Moody" <tim at timmoody.com> wrote:

    I am starting to write larger chunks of code and wondering what copyright and licensing I should include.  Any suggestions welcome.  (In Canada copyright rests with the author unless it is relinquished.)

    Most XS code has something like:

    #  Copyright 2007, One Laptop per Child
    #  Author: John Watlington
    #
    # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    # modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License
    # as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
    # of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
    #
    # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    # GNU General Public License for more details.
    #
    # You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
    # License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    # Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
    # 02111-1307, USA.

    IIAB has:

    This software is licensed with the BSD 2-clause license
    (See http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause)

    Copyright (c) 2013, Humane Informatics LLC
    All rights reserved.

    Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
    modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

        Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
    list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
        Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
    this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
    and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

    THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
    ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
    WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
    DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
    FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
    DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
    SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
    CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
    OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
    OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

    Tim
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