Am Sun, 3 Aug 2008 01:59:21 +0200 schrieb Jorge Luis Zapata Muga: > License > As most of the code on efl-research project (and most of *my* code) it > does not have COPYING file, it was left out on purpose, basically to > be able to discuss this "license issue" with e developers. We all have > already argued about licensing and there are several respectable and > contrary point of views. I, as the original author of this library, > even if some of the code was taken from evas or ecore, wanted to > license the library as LGPL; but as i have already stated, this new > license has several considerations, *please* don't start a license > arguments, the other thread is for that, this one is to decide: > > 1. Relicensing eina as LGPL is possible and *does not* go against Evas > or Ecore license, BSD allows that as long as the third (author) clause > is respected and so it will be (in case eina's license finally gets > set to LGPL) > 2. What will be the reaction from developers that want BSD license? > from what i've deduced on IRC and ML, several of this developers > *won't* contribute to this library if it is not BSD, (please those > developers that think that this is point is for them, confirm or deny > this). In my opinion the current state of e developers is too small to > actually divide it based on the license they prefer; and of course > that argument "imposes" the license the library can be. So, the main > question on this point is: if it is LGPL are you going to contribute > to it? and, if it is LGPL are you going to *link" against this > library?
It seems the license question is still very much discussed. Until now I didn't say much about it. But now I like to add my 2 cents to that topic. At work we develop software for embedded devices. In most cases is the result a commercial closed-source product. For sure we used open source software in the past (not based on EFL until now!). So GPL is no option. The LGPL would be an option. But in most cases it's not an option as good as BSD (better say MIT). The reason is that in most cases it's needed to modify the library itself. For example if there's a Win32 and a Linux port, but no WinCE port. For sure one could contribute the changes back to the open source project. But in most cases this doesn't happen because of time or interest. If in the past I started a new software I choosed GPL (or LGPL for libraries) if I didn't think longer about the license. Since some time I changed my opinion and choose BSD (MIT style) for new projects. GPL/LGPL only in some special cases. The main reason is that I like the option to use my personal created code also in my professional job without much restrictions even if someone else contributed patches to it. The other solution for my personal projects would be to not accept patches because I don't like to give away the freedom to use it for other commercial projects. I've no problem if someone forks one of my projects to LGPL or don't contribute back. For sure this is only valid for any projects I started by myself. (Not very much in the E development). If someone else starts a LGPL or GPL projects for good reasons I respect that and would contribute code there with the same license. It's the freedom of the project starter to choose a license he/she likes for good reasons. But I think one "software stack" (as I would see the complete EFL) should use the same license though all the libraries. It doesn't help to have BSD for some licenses and LGPL for others. This is very confusing for developers that like to create commercial software. For example I haven't understood why eflpp is LGPL but all libraries it uses are BSD. This makes not much sense for me. Specially not if the application based on it is then again BSD licensed (I assume this is allowed by the licenses). :-) But I respect the choose of Mickey and contribute code under this license to eflpp. regards Andreas ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing list enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel
