[Server-devel] [XSCE] copyright and licensing

[Sameer Verma]

On Sat, Nov 1, 2014 at 4:20 PM, Braddock Gaskill <braddock at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

GPL is a reciprocating license, whereas BSD style licenses (academic
license) aren't required to be. Lawrence Rosen's book
(http://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm) is a good read. I use it in my
"Managind Open Source" class at SFSU.

Some interesting chapters:

"Taxonomy of licenses" is an overview of different styles and
purposes: http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/Rosen_Ch04.pdf
"Academic licenses" is all about BSD and its kin:
http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/Rosen_Ch05.pdf
"Reciprocity and the GPL" is all about the requirement of propagation
in GPL: http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/Rosen_Ch06.pdf
"Choosing an Open Source license" is a good chapter on the process of
choosing an appropriate license:
http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/Rosen_Ch10.pdf

Also, the task of choosing a license only belongs to the intellectual
property holder, and nobody else. So, if you get code under a specific
license, you have no choice but to use it. You cannot change it. The
IP holder however may change licenses or use multiple ones, including
non-FOSS licenses.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/

> 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
>
>