Re: Recently released QPL
On Sun, Mar 28, 1999 at 01:54:00PM -0500, Jonathan P Tomer wrote:
> * the problem: the most popular available copyleft licence around has severe
> compatibility issues, even with other free software
What's a problem for you is a desired effect for me (and vice versa).
> * my solution: create a license that shares the transitive property of the
> gpl for modifications, but that has a clause like the lgpl's allowing
> other programs to link with it *so long as they are covered by a dfsg
> compliant licence*.
This license would most probably still be incompatible with the GPL, so
what's the point? You would gain yet-another GPL incompatible license which
is furthermore more restrictive than the BSDish licenses, but less
restrictive then the GPL. You would contribute to the license fragmentation,
indeed, you'd support it because you encourage people to write DFSG free
licenses, whatever that means (we see with the OSD what people want to sell
us as Open Source licenses, right?).
I'd consider this harmful to the Free Software community. Preferably, I
would like not to see another OSD license popping up, I am fed up with every
company rolling its own to exploit as many loopholes in the OSD (which is
very similar to DSFG).
> i've already proposed the terms for such a licence in my previous mail,
> which seems to have been read (wow), so i shan't repeat them. it also
> contianed a clause that allows the work to be relicenced under any copyleft,
> which i think should enhance its portability yet further; for instance, if
> this licence is declared incompatible with the gpl, for whatever reason,
> authors of gpl software who want to share with me can still do so by
> releasing my work under the gpl, even after i've donated my work anonymously
> and can't be reached to ask for permission.
Sorry, I seem to have missed that in your original proposal. On the first
look, this seems to invaliddate my first counterargument above, but then, I
think it is not possible to get this in a legal document without opening
zillions of loopholes and similar unconvenient stuff (you'd need to define
"copyleft").
Thanks,
Marcus
--
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