[OpenLayers-Dev] RFC: Changing the License on OpenLayers

Tim Schaub tschaub at openplans.org
Tue Oct 9 19:26:06 EDT 2007


For the record:
+1

Tim

Paul Spencer wrote:
> +1 Paul
> 
> On 9-Oct-07, at 12:53 PM, Christopher Schmidt wrote:
> 
>> During the FOSS4G conference, the available members of the PSC sat  
>> down
>> with our incubation mentor (Howard Butler) and Frank Warmadam,  
>> president
>> of OSGeo, to discuss completing OSGeo incubation of OpenLayers.
>>
>> It was decided that the easiest path forward for all involved would be
>> to change the license on all OpenLayers materials -- including all
>> future releases -- to be licensed under the license that MetaCarta has
>> been calling the 'Clear BSD'. The Clear BSD is essentially the BSD
>> license, with an extra clause that states that no patent rights are
>> granted with the license.
>>
>> In the past, we had posted to the dev/users lists about changing the
>> repository license from the MetaCarta-specific one to the Clear BSD.
>> (This had been discussed internally on the PSC list, then made  
>> public.)
>> Now, we are having the same discussion, but instead of changing  
>> just the
>> repository license, we are proposing to change the release license as
>> well.
>>
>> Changing this license will allow us to remove all MetaCarta-specific
>> aspects of the release process. It has no (known) change in the actual
>> licensing restrictions. Changing the release process allows us to
>> proceed with OSGeo incubation.
>>
>> As a reminder, for those who haven't been paying attention, an
>> explanation of MetaCarta's need for the "Clear BSD" license is  
>> available
>> from http://labs.metacarta.com/license-explanation.html , and has (in
>> bold) the changes in the license text. (They're pretty minor.)
>>
>> This RFC is a request for any comments on the intention to change, for
>> all future releases of OpenLayers, the release license to be the Clear
>> BSD license, and (since the repository license will then be the same)
>> to thereafter refer to it only as the "Clear BSD" license in the code,
>> docs, etc.
>>
>> I am in favor (+1) of making this change as soon as the 2.5 release is
>> out, making 2.5 the last release shipped under the official BSD  
>> license,
>> and at that time making the previously proposed changes to the SVN
>> layout in order to take into account the licensing change.
>>
>> (PSC Members: I know we voted on this on the PSC list, but I'd like to
>> have a public vote as part of our goal of moving PSC list  
>> discussions to
>> the public view, so even if you feel like you voted, please vote again
>> :))
>>
>> Regards,
>> -- 
>> Christopher Schmidt
>> MetaCarta
>> _______________________________________________
>> Dev mailing list
>> Dev at openlayers.org
>> http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
> 
> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
> |Paul Spencer                          pspencer at dmsolutions.ca    |
> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
> |Chief Technology Officer                                         |
> |DM Solutions Group Inc                http://www.dmsolutions.ca/ |
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