[GRASSLIST:10801] Re: [GRASS5] FWD: [OSGeo-Discuss] Incubation Committee / Contributor Agreements]

[Thomas Adams]

I am not a GRASS developer at this point, but I would *like* to begin 
contributing at some point in the future as some time frees up for me. 
Personally, I prefer the 'R' model and the term "free-enough for most 
people" worries me. Does the R licensing fall under the "free-enough for 
most people" umbrella? If so, then I guess it works out OK. It indeed 
would be a shame to see some of the most productive developers siphoned 
off as Glynn suggests could happen.

Tom


Laurent C. wrote:
> 2006/3/8, Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com 
> <mailto:glynn at gclements.plus.com>>:
>
>
>     As I see it, the main risk of allowing proprietary derivatives is a
>     risk of "siphoning off" developers and beta testers (aka "users") from
>     the free version towards a "mostly, but not quite" free version.
>
>     IMHO, the biggest risk is with versions which are "free-enough for
>     most people", e.g. "free for non-commercial use". OpenDWG is probably
>     a good example; it isn't "Free Software", but it's close enough to
>     significantly reduce the chances of a genuinely-free alternative being
>     developed.
>
>  
>
> Hello list, hello Glynn,
>
> I don't think OpenDWG is a good example because there is no free 
> alternative and AFAIK Open Desing Alliance hasn't fork any free 
> software, and there is no community around this project.
> *BSD OS are free for more than 10 years, and many commercial 
> derivatives has born. *BSD still have strong community.
> I don't think BSD, MIT and other permissive licences are threat for 
> opensource developpers and users.
>
> According to the first draft of GPLv3, it seem that gplv3 software 
> will be more "compatible" with other free software.
>
> Just my two cents
>
> Laurent


-- 
Thomas E Adams
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