Re: [PHP-QA] Debian and the PHP license
Ferenc Kovacs <tyra3l@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've find it a bit disturbing, that ftpmasters can make a decision on legal
> grounds(which is the probably the highest priority for debian as far as I'm
> concerned), without any backing from debian-legal
debian-legal has no authority to decide anything. It is just a
mailing list. We can discuss things here day and night and
ftp-masters can ignore it.
With that said, debian-legal can be useful when issues are clear-cut.
For example, if someone asks if the Apache 2.0 license is compatible
with the GPL (no for GPL 2.0, yes for GPL 3.0). Think of debian-legal
as the secretary for ftp-masters. We can sometimes divine what they
are thinking, but the final word belongs to ftp-masters.
In any case, in the interest of making this email constructive, my
take on the PHP license is that it does need to be fixed. From
ftp-masters REJECT-FAQ, they also think so. So my advice would be to
just use a well known, existing license and be done with it. Judging
from the existing PHP license, the closest thing would be the 3 clause
BSD license
http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause
Apache 2.0 would also be a good choice.
Now, I understand that changing licenses is a huge chore, and the
benefits can sometimes be intangible. The main benefit is that you
will never have to deal with us again ;)
Cheers,
Walter Landry
wlandry@caltech.edu
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