Re: Licensing in PEAR

On Monday 02 December 2002 10:32 am, Lukas Smith wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Ian Eure [mailto:ieure@debian.org] > > Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 7:23 PM > > To: pear-dev@lists.php.net > > Subject: [PEAR-DEV] Licensing in PEAR > > > > After trying to submit GPL'd PEAR modules[1], I've looked over the PHP > > license, the GPL, and the LGPL. I'm feeling stuck, and I'd like > > advice. > > > PHP License: > > Unacceptable. I will not release my code under this license, unless > > major > > > changes are made. In particular, Clause 4 irks me, in that I'm not > > given a > > > choice to bind my code to a particular version of the license. With > > the > > > (L)GPL, I may specify a specific version of the license. This is an > > issue > > > because if a later version of the PHP license contains a clause that I > > don't > > agree with, I have no way to prevent people from using it anyways. > > > > LGPL: > > Unacceptable. This license makes it far too easy to modify the class > > without > > contributing the code back. For example, writing a 'wrapper' class > > which > > > overloads the original, and changes the behavior, or adds a feature, > > or > > > whatever. > > Do you really think this is a real world issue? > Sure. I think it's a bigger issue when dealing with OO code vs. shared libraries. OO code makes it very easy to change the behavior of inherited functions without directly modifying the code. > I have never seen anyone write a wrapper to get around licensing issues. > nVidia springs to mind as a real-world example. They released the source to a kernel module which loads a (closed) binary driver in to the kernel, to avoid releasing the source to their drivers. > Nor would I expect people to do it because it adds overhead, makes the > design needlessly complex. > When the alternative is releasing the code to your (closed) app, I'm pretty sure that most people would opt to have a slightly messy design. Or just reimplement the class. -- "das ist liebe, das ist hass / mit eifersucht vermahlen"