Lars Ivar Igesund wrote:
Daniel Keep wrote:
I'm not talking about distribution of the actual library machine code,
I'm talking about the LEGAL ISSUES. Tango's license apparently requires
you to explicitly include attribution for Tango in your program. This
means it's possible to naively compile "Hello, World" with Tango,
distribute it and break the law.
Sorry to use you as the source to enter the thread, Daniel.
Tango DOES NOT IN ANY WAY require you to put attribution into your program.
That is a choice you as a user would make entirely on your own by choosing
to use Tango licensed under the BSD (which is quite possible because this
license is better suited for use alongside the GPL).
However, the AFL does not put such a restriction on your binaries, and
(unless you use the GPL for your code) the AFL is the license most users
should use. This is also noted on the license page (it was probably not
clear enough, I hope it is now).
http://dsource.org/projects/tango/wiki/LibraryLicense
For current or prospective contributors; you are completely and entirely
entitled to relicense your own code to whichever license you wish, however
these should also include the AFL and BSD when used in Tango.
To change the license to something else at this point (for instance to
Apache 2.0 only), would be a major undertaking, but something that we may
consider to do at a later point.
I read http://dsource.org/projects/tango/wiki/LibraryLicense.
I am sorry to say, the page /still/ is not /clear/ enough. (As of Mar
22, 00:24 UTC.)
The first bullets establish the intent, yes. But everything after that
is actually... worthless. What the page should instead say, is /in terms
understandable to/ *anybody*, explain what you have to do if you
incorporate Tango in your software, or if you make another library that
depends on Tango.
Even if this includes "awkward things" (like having to have a constant
string in the binary, mentioning Tango in the "About" menu item, or
whatever else), it should be stated in layman-understandable terms.
Currently, words like "encumbrance", phrases like "provides broad
rights" etc. only make the prospective reader run away in frustration.
Just state what you want, in language that can be understood at First
Reading, without asking your mother. Or both of you having an IQ of 170+.
I'm not surprised that Don and others are getting second thoughts about
contributing. A /clear/ stance to these issues makes everybody's
(contributors, users, OS distributors, even app vendors) life easier.
And, therefore, increases the popularity of Tango.
