Re: Proposal of the libpurple binding

On Nov 11, 2007 8:01 PM, Anatoliy Belsky <weltling@0ext.net> wrote: > Hi everybody, > > I'm working on the PHP binding for the libpurple > http://pidgin.im, > an im library. As far as I know, there is no PHP instant messaging > extension right now. The purple extension will give a possibility > to use irc, msn, icq, yahoo and much more protocols directly from > PHP. This library rocks! Having a PHP binding can give yet more power to our language. The only problem with many similar libraries is the GPL. I never understoodwhy a library has to be GPL. The LGPL is more flexible and would let you published your extension in PECL (see below). > Because the libpurple is under GPL, the purple PHP extension will > be under GPL too. (I'm no a lawer and if it's in some way possible, > to release it under PHP license, let me know). GPL licensed codes are not allowed under *.php.net. The FSF considers the PHP license as incompatible with the GPL. See the internals and pecl-dev archive for a more detailed explanation. An alternative would be to ask the libpurple author to allow you to use their library with php by adding an exception or by dual licensing libpurple (one for php and one for the other). But I doubt they will do it. In any case, if you can make it here, you can still host your extension in pidgin or in sf.net. The license issues remain, but it is up to your users to know it and be careful with what they do or distribute. Cheers, --Pierre --Pierre