[MapServer-dev] Motion: upgrade documentation license version from CC BY-SA 3.0 to 4.0

Jeff McKenna jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com
Mon Feb 6 06:31:57 PST 2023


Dear PSC,

Background
----------

Through recent clarifications made for the MapServer-documentation 
GitHub repository, as well as the visible 'copyright' page on 
mapserver.org, it was pointed out that the documentation uses an old CC 
BY-SA version, 3.0, that was released in 2007, whereas a more complete 
license version 4.0 has been available since 2013.

The CC BY-SA 4.0 license was released to tackle some issues such as:
  - international law / global scope
  - prevent copyleft trolls
    - to prevent: 
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator-5f6360713299
  - international translations of the license
  - improved readability
    - read more about "what's new" in the 4.0 series at 
https://creativecommons.org/version4/
    - read a short summary of the 4.0 license: 
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I believe that this is a good time to upgrade the 
MapServer-documentation license to version 4.0

The Fedora project also recently upgraded from CC BY-SA 3.0 to 4.0 :
   - read about the benefits of upgrading, for the Fedora project: 
https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/policy-proposal-update-default-content-license-to-cc-by-sa-4-0/
   - read about the Fedora announcement of the CC BY-SA 4.0 default 
license: 
https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/fedoras-default-license-for-content-is-now-cc-by-sa-4-0/

Motion to the PSC
-----------------

I therefore motion to the MapServer PSC that the MapServer-documentation 
license should be upgraded from CC BY-SA 3.0 to CC BY-SA 4.0

Motion voting window
--------------------

Will give 5 business days for responses.

Related Pull Request
--------------------

https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer-documentation/pull/796

Comments
--------

I believe this is good timing, to review the original documentation 
license, before the imminent MapServer 8.0.1 release.


Thank-you for your passion, to share,

-jeff






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