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Ticket #1397 (assigned wishlist)

Opened 15 years ago

Last modified 15 years ago

Create a DDOC macro for Phobos compatible licensing.

Reported by: Don Clugston Assigned to: larsivi (accepted)
Priority: minor Milestone: Documentation
Component: Tango Version: 0.99.7 Dominik
Keywords: Cc:

Description

I would like it if there was some way of stating that although my code is under the Tango license, I'm happy to provide a public domain version on request.

Could we create a new ddoc macro, $(PHOBOS_COMPATIBLE_LICENSE) which (for now) is defined as $(LICENSE), but to which in future we could add a line stating an exemption: the code can be used in Phobos without restriction. (The precise wording could be difficult to work out, I'm not suggesting we do that immediately). This would remove one of the few remaining differences between Tango and Phobos versions of my code.

Change History

12/09/08 13:03:58 changed by larsivi

  • priority changed from major to minor.
  • status changed from new to assigned.
  • type changed from enhancement to wishlist.
  • owner changed from kris to larsivi.
  • milestone changed from 0.99.8 to Documentation.

AFAIK, it is not a huge problem having two licenses in the source, although it may be a legal grey area if one of them is PD.

Note, the Tango license does not restrict anything (except that the license cannot be changed), so usage anywhere else is not restricted - in the case of Phobos that is self-imposed. In the case of license-compatibility (in a legal sense), they are as compatible as any.

So all-in-all I see no need for this macro for general use, it does not bring value to the documentation itself, it would only be a minor help to those that have code present in both libraries, or intend to copy code from Tango and put in Phobos.

12/09/08 13:22:59 changed by Don Clugston

"Note, the Tango license does not restrict anything (except that the license cannot be changed)"

That's exactly the point. Basically, I want my code in Tango to be public domain. Apparently that's not acceptable (though I'm not sure who decided that). So the next best thing would be, this_is_intended_to_be_public_domain_and_the_only_reason _it_isnt_is_that_tango_is_worried_about_bloody_software_lawyers.

But I know that there are other contributers to Tango who actually like the license, and would NOT be happy to have their code released in the public domain. It's not just documentation, it's legal taint as well. People like Andre and Walter won't look at the Tango code because of the license. I want to make it clear that my contributions are intended for public domain, despite being in Tango.

12/09/08 13:32:21 changed by larsivi

PD is not generally acceptable because there are several countries where it is not legally binding meaning:

  • The code is unlicensed in those countries, and can thus legally not be used at all - huge problem for companies in particular
  • The waiving of liability that is an important part of all open source licenses does not apply, thus the author is liable for any damages, although this will be hard to try in court considering that the code probably wasn't used legally in the first place.
  • The code needs to have a proper open source license for those countries in any case

Tango's license is as free as anyone could want it - if anyone want it freer than that then they are either paranoid, misunderstand the license or PD, or intend to take the code and claim it as their own.

12/09/08 13:35:53 changed by larsivi

I should add - Tango has no reason to worry about software lawyers, but Tango's users very definately have, and I do know of companies that explicitly prohibit use of PD. There do exist PD libraries, but if they want commercial users (and they do), they need to have an option to send out a paper stating that it is also licensed under some acceptable license. That is a beaureucratic burden we are not interested in.