Jim wrote: > MPL should never be used for Firebird code. It gives specific rights to > Netscape. > And another several interesting and valuable lessons of history. It's not true that he had to talk me out of GPL. I knew that the goal of open source InterBase was to provide tools for future commercial developers who couldn't afford license fees charged by Oracle, SQLServer, or say Inprise... Make it up with superior service.
> > So to paraphrase Adriano, please state the problem before the solution. > And if the problem is "Because ISO says so", let me share a bit of history between the Firebird project and ISO. Originally the open source InterBase was to be an Inprise affiliated company and we were all going to work together to improve the lives of database application developers. Then things went wrong and suddenly there was Firebird, frozen open source InterBase, and InterBase an Inprise product. Not to mention a bunch of very angry people. One of the first tasks (after drinking a lot) was to create a license so Firebird code would not belong to Inprise going forward. For that, we took MPL (1.1, I believe) and removed references to Netscape or the Mozilla Foundation or MPL. Mozilla had very clear rules that if you changed one word of the license, you couldn't call it MPL. Fine. Call it IDPL. So I applied to the OSI for blessing for our license. I thought it was a slam dunk, since it has all the goodness of MPL without any tie to a corporate entity. No. The OSI required that an attorney familiar with open source licenses explain in detail why this license met their standards and was different from all existing approved licenses. This was in mid-2000. Attorneys familiar with the fine points of open source licenses were rare and usually affilated with one open source camp or another. And even if one could be found, it would cost a couple of thousand dollars that we didn't want to spend on an attorney. A couple of years later, when we did have some Firebird money, I asked again. Them: "No. There are too many licenses. Choose one and use it. If you like MPL, use it." Me: "But it gives rights over our license and code to an entity that has nothing to do with us." Them: "Tough. There are too many licenses." This was shortly after we'd had a confrontation with the Mozilla foundation about the probability that an open source database called Firebird could be confused with or harmed by an open source browser called "Firebird". That was the only time in my life I've had a death threat. So the Mozilla Foundation wasn't high on my lists of organizations on whom Firebird's future should depend. OSI has a nice name and a nice logo. But I still consider them pig-headded jerks. Which has nothing to do with decisions made by Firebird fifteen years later, nor should it. Dmitry has given good reasons not to meddle with the licensing. By all means, change the headers to point to a more stable license repository, but don't change the license. With best regards, Ann ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dive into the World of Parallel Programming The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/ Firebird-Devel mailing list, web interface at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-devel
