Re: license issues

On Tue, 29 Jun 1999, Zeev Suraski wrote: > Before we can modify the PHP license (e.g., modify any clause in our > license or drop the GPL), we must get the approval of every single person > who've contributed code to the source tree, don't we? Just a small suggestion, but contacting these people isn't as hard as it sounds, simply use the cvsusers file. If someone neglected to keep it current, it's not a problem I don't think - you just need to show reasonable effort in contacting people. Contact everyone there, and give them 30 days to respond, if they have a problem with the new license, if they do not respond then they are implying that it's OK with them. I doubt anyway you will get objections, questions probably, but that should be it. (After a consensus is reached on PHP-DEV I mean.) ***** What I've read so far is that the problems are actually with a single paragraph, and with defining who are the core developers with veto power. I think that before you hash out the core users as a legal entity, you might want to decide on the issue keeping the paragraph. My idea in this regard is this, the point of the paragraph is to prevent X. In nearly all cases permission to do Y will be granted. Think of any possible cases where it would not, then write it down, and remove the ask permission clause. It then removes the problem, first of all, any users who have submitted code have agreed to this clause, second, they have agreed to be represented by the core group in this regard, so if the entire core group says - these are the rules that we look at in deciding on permission, you are not really changing the license - you are only writing it down rather then having it subjective. (i.e. you are making the license be your proxie in granting or denying permission.) -Ariel