[mapserver-users] Mapserver equivalent for .NET

Frank Warmerdam warmerdam at pobox.com
Fri Feb 29 11:41:27 EST 2008


Tim Bowden wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-02-29 at 13:32 +0100, Tamas Szekeres wrote:
>> I'm not aware of any compelling reason to switch to a more restrictive
>> license. 
> 
> Sure, the current licensing arrangement seems to be working well for
> mapserver, though there are sometimes reasons to be less permissive.  I
> speculated about this the other day in a different context
> (http://blog.mapforge.com.au/index.php/2008/02/27/when-open-source-doesnt-add-up/) Perhaps I'm wrong.  I'd like to get others thoughts on this /without/ starting a flame war (off list if you like; It's not mapserver specific).  I realise there can be strong feelings about licensing but so long as it's open source I'm not too worried.

Tim,

My attempts to register with your blog seem to have failed, so I'm going to
reply briefly here.

In referencing MySQL as an example of the GPL being a strongly license, you
need to be clear that MySQL AB's value as a company is based on the fact that
they can offer non-GPL licensing to licensors of MySQL because they retain
copyright ownership of all the MySQL code.  That is, they have retained a
degree of control of the project that no-one could have over MapServer at
this point and they use that control to squeeze money out of folks not
willing to comply with GPL terms.

That is a reasonable model for open source business, but it can't work for
MapServer at this point and in any event I find it the antithesis of building
a "community of equality" where all participants can potentially have equal
influence if they are willing to contribute equally.

Beyond the fact that it would be impractical to change now, I think the
current permissive license for MapServer has been one of it's "secrets to
success".  Companies building products like MapDotNet on MapServer is a
good thing, and with a bit of encouragement such organizations are generally
willing to contribute to and support MapServer to some degree (as does
already occur in this particular case).

I *do* wish we had a way to turn "interest in supporting" into direct
maintenance on the core via a sponsorship program as has worked fairly
well for GDAL.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org



More information about the mapserver-users mailing list