[Incubator] PyWPS

[Frank Warmerdam]

Markus Schneider wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> before I bring up the discussion on PyWPS' incubation admittance (I
> volunteered as a mentor), please assist me in answering two questions from
> the PyWPS people:
> 
>> AFAIK, once PyWPS would become OSGeo project, the copyright would go to 
>> OSGeo.
> 
> IMHO, this is not correct (e.g. deegree). OSGeo basically offers to become
> the copyright holder for member projects to act as the legal representative
> for copyright issues. Right?

Markus,

You are correct.  It is ok to assign the copyright to OSGeo but it is not
required.

>> We would like to offer dual-licensing model (similar to geoserver), so 
>> that partners, who are not able from various reasons, accept the GNU/GPL 
>> license (which still applies), could still use PyWPS in their products. 
>> One real-life example: Humboldt CST (http://esdi-humboldt.eu), which is 
>> released under GNU/LGPL uses PyWPS as WPS-interface the schema 
>> transformation.
>> 
>> So, could you maybe answer this me this question: Once PyWPS would become
>> OSGeo project, would there still be possibility for us to apply dual
>> licensing model?
> 
> This should not be a problem for OSGeo incubation, right?

I am not aware of another *graduated* project which takes a dual licensing
approach.  I'm not saying it is a problem, but I think it does bear
discussion as part of incubation.

I am somewhat leery about having an OSGeo project that an outside
organization or individual can offer under alternate, non-opensource
license terms at will.  To make this work, I assume additional
contributors to the project would have to assign special rights to
this outside organization.  This seems contrary to OSGeo offering an
even playing field to all contributors to a project.

Could the dual licensing arrangement be explained in more detail?

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent