Re: PHP License Questions

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 14:08:36 -0500, Andrew Lindeman <alindeman@php.net> wrote: > Hi all! > > Many PEAR libraries are licensed under the PHP license. I'm using a few > of these (right now, DB and Calendar) in a project that will eventually > be released under the GPL. A member of the GNU Savannah development > team (i.e. a reputable source) recently mentioned that the GPL was > incompatible with the PHP license (verified by > > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses > ) > and that using code under the PHP license in a GPL'ed piece of software > could not mesh. > > This is one of his quotes as to the conflict (referring to the PHP > license): > "ah, I would guess the advertising clause, that and how it's not > definitive enough with your rights." > > I know that the PHP license is basically a BSD license with a few > clauses about the 'PHP' name, so this confuses me. > > I'm also extremely confused because I *know* many GPL'ed pieces of > software use PEAR libraries under the PHP license. Is this just a > matter of no enforcement or is he mistaken? If he's mistaken, can > someone elaborate so I can refute his argument? > > I don't mean any offense to the developer I refer to or anyone else; I'm > just concerned about what this means to my project. > The difference here is with using something unchanged vs. altering / directly lifting code to put in your projects. You can use PHP License *or* LGPL code withint another application unchanged no matter what license you use for the app (at least I'm pretty sure you can, IANAL, etc.). You have to remember that the LGPL allows libraray usage in your application (or other library) while the GPL does not unless your application is GPL. This is a very important distinction. -- paperCrane --Justin Patrin--