Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=63520&edit=1
ID: 63520
Comment by: b dot eltzner at gmx dot de
Reported by: kaplan at debian dot org
Summary: JSON extension includes a problematic license
statement
Status: Assigned
Type: Bug
Package: JSON related
PHP Version: Irrelevant
Assigned To: remi
Block user comment: N
Private report: N
New Comment:
I am not a native speaker. This comment is not supposed to be rude or insult anybody.
I would like to make the problem clearer:
*The "json license" affecting /ext/json/JSON_parser.c and /ext/json/utf8_decode.c is
regarded non-free by GNU/FSF, Debian, Fedora, Red Hat and Google and is not approved by OSI. This is
not at all the same as "Free but incompatible with GPL", which is the category in which
the FSF lists the php license.
*The morality clause "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil." violates software
freedom 0 and point 6 of the open source definition and the license will therefore _never_ be free
or open source by definition. This is not a license "some fanatics don't like", it is
a manifestly proprietary license.
*The original author of the license has purposely chosen this form of license to trick open source
projects into mistaking it as an open source license. He did this to prove the point that
"those open source guys are entitled kids" and plays the issue for amusement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCimLnIsDA
*With the non-free files, PHP cannot be distributed unmodified as free software by downstream
projects.
Note that I don't say "Throw that stuff out!!!!11" It goes without saying that you
can distribute the result of your work under whatever licenses you like, open source or not.
However, if you want PHP to be easily distributable as free and open source software by downstream
projects, I am sure they would be enormously relieved, if you provided them with a simple way to
exclude the non-free files without breaking too much functionality.
Previous Comments:
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[2012-11-23 13:33:42] remi@php.net
A patch proposed in https://bugs.php.net/63588 makes
"json_encode" really free.
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[2012-11-15 18:09:30] rasmus@php.net
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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
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