[OpenLayers-Dev] Apparently Our license isn't very Findable

[Erik Uzureau]

http://trac.openlayers.org/ticket/1399

On 2/24/08, Erik Uzureau <euzuro at gmail.com> wrote:
> I came across a quote[1] today complaining that the license for
> OpenLayers is not hard to find. I went to the page myself to check
> it out, and it does seem like a problem we should attend to. Most
> other open source projects will have very clear links to the license
> from the homepage, but we do not.
>
> We should probably do the same, and as long as we're counting
> ponies, it would probably be a handy thing to have a "license FAQ"
> page where we explain what the deal is with the license and how
> to use it, etc. We could even have some "case studies" or
> "testimonials" sections of how different people have dealt with the
> license.
>
> --e
>
> [1] "For that matter, if you are working in a commercial setting (you
> said the word "client" so I assume you might be), you also have the
> labor/legal cost of parsing the various licensing agreements of the
> different bits and pieces you have chosen to integrate to see if you
> can even use those "open source" bits in your commercial application.
> That is sometimes not so easy, as I invite anyone who is not familiar
> with OpenLayers to see for themselves: go to the
> http://www.openlayers.org/ site and see for yourself just how long it
> takes you to even find a license let alone how long it takes you to
> figure out exactly the limits of commercial activity you can do with
> it. This is not easy for someone completely new to that module. I
> realize that giving the faintest flying hoot about licensing is not
> something that script kiddies care about, but it is something that
> responsble folks like James and you, the gentle reader, and I care
> about.]" -- from
> http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2008/02/05/bringing-open-source-gis-into-an-esri-shop/#comment-33109
>