Bug #63520 [Sus]: JSON extension includes a problematic license statement

From: Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:09:30 +0000
Subject: Bug #63520 [Sus]: JSON extension includes a problematic license statement
References: 1  Groups: php.bugs 
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Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=63520&edit=1

 ID:                 63520
 Updated by:         rasmus@php.net
 Reported by:        kaplan at debian dot org
 Summary:            JSON extension includes a problematic license
                     statement
 Status:             Suspended
 Type:               Bug
 Package:            JSON related
 PHP Version:        Irrelevant
 Block user comment: N
 Private report:     N

 New Comment:

I am not saying it isn't a tricky license clause to deal with and it would be 
better if it wasn't there. However, I am also not keen on spending resources on 
rewriting code for this reason. If someone supplies a functionally equivalent 
replacement, we will have a look at it. But as far as I am concerned, license-
wise the terms Good and Evil are not legal terms. These are more subjective 
self-describing terms and since I deem PHP's use of the code as "Good" then we 
comply with the license. Could others perhaps use PHP and thus the code for 
"Evil" and therefore not comply with the license? Sure, but there are many 
things people can do with our code that is either against the various licenses 
involved or even illegal criminally. It is something we cannot control.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-11-15 18:01:24] pajoye@php.net

More seriously, as soon as the license is changed upstream, we will merge it. But 
we won't be able to do anything before.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-11-15 18:00:52] pajoye@php.net

well, the FSF does not like the PHP license either. Nothing worries me here :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-11-15 17:58:38] ansgar at debian dot org

I just want to note that the FSF[1] and other distributions like Fedora also think this license is
bad[2].

  [1] <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#JSON>
  [2] <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main#Bad_Licenses>,
look for "JSON License"

So this is not a problem for just Debian.

Ansgar

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-11-15 07:39:35] rasmus@php.net

Sorry, I don't see us ripping out and rewriting the json code due to this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-11-15 07:30:01] kaplan at debian dot org

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 10:06 PM, Douglas Crockford <douglas@crockford.com> wrote:
> The license looks fine to me.

So he refuses politely... which means it's time for PHP.net to think about this license issue
(e.g. use a different implementation for JSON).

And you're right, it's *also* problem in Debian, and we talk to the different upstream
projects, trying to resolve the issue with each of them, but that's still a problem of the
upstream itself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


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the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at

    https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=63520


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