On Sunday 25 Oct 2009, Vivian Meazza wrote: [snip...] > I'm afraid that there are just 2 options - > > "Stop contributing if you don't like it." > > "Change the license going forward." > > Note - you cannot withdraw your contributions to date from GPL. > And since FG/SG is largely complete and released under GPL, > trying to put cats back into bags is a pretty pointless exercise. > > Whilst I absolutely agree that Durk was well intentioned, his > action was to amend the basis on which FG is distributed > unilaterally, without the prior agreement of ALL the contributors > to FG/SG, and to attempt to do it retrospectively. And whilst I > have no big issue with WHAT has been done, I dislike intensely > HOW it was done. > > If, and it's a big if, we wish collectively to change the license > going forward, then so be it. Meanwhile, Durk's well intentioned, > but inappropriate action, which makes us look stupid at best, and > might be considered to be against the spirit if not the letter of > the GPL at worst, should be withdrawn immediately while this > issue is sorted. > > Vivian
I'm not sure that it would be practical to change the license for the FG software to a more restrictive one as it would require the explicit permission to do so from everyone that has contributed to the code because they retain copyright over their contribution. An agreement between the current developers to change the license wouldn't be sufficient. Basically, it's not going to happen because a) I doubt it would be possible to contact everyone who has contributed over the years, and b) many of those people will not want to change the license anyway. Changing the license of the aircraft is more feasible as these would be considered as separate works and copyright is usually only held by a few people at most. As mentioned previously though, the new license would not be retroactive and would only apply to subsequent development; the original GPL'd aircraft would still be GPL'd. LeeE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
