On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Johannes Schlüter <johan...@schlueters.de>
wrote:

> On Fri, 2014-06-27 at 09:56 +0200, Ferenc Kovacs wrote:
> > I think the difference is that we have a couple of clauses which sounds
> > weird/makes no sense when the license is used for extensions or anything
> > else than php-src, like clause 3, 4 and 6.
> > And this is what they were complaining about in the thread referenced
> from
> > their reject faq:
> > https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/08/msg00128.html
>
> Mind that this refers to PHP license 3.0, version 3.01 slightly changed
> the text (essentially s/includes PHP/includes PHP software/) to satisfy
> Debian.
>

Yeah, I figured out that in my latest email.


>
> I agree that the clauses not necessarily make a lot of sense for most
> uses, but mind PECL is not only Siberia but also an incubator. Some
> extensions start in PECL and eventually move over to the core
> distribution. Keeping the license aligned makes this simpler. (While 99%
> of the PECL extensions will never be in a PHP release)
>

I agree that it is a good thing that we have a common license for the core
and the extensions, I just think that current text is a bit awkward/clunky
when reading it in an extension context.


>
> > > OTOH, I don't think anything really prevents PECL extension authors
> > > to dual-license their extensions under whatever Debian would like, if
> > > they want so. People that aren't extension authors probably can't do
> > > much here though.
> > >
> >
> > Yeah, but maybe we could do something like creating a new version of the
> > license which makes it a bit clear, what do we mean by derived work(do we
> > consider exts/sapis/etc. derived ork or not),
>
> It is tough to write a good legal document when you want to be precise.
> Keeping the current form allows a case by case evaluation. From what
> I've heard (never done it myself) the PHP Group was quit gracious on
> requests. (only case I remember where they requested a rename was
> HardnendPHP)
>

Keeping it less clear also have negative side effects, like not being allow
to enforce it, if the court interprets your text differently than you, and
could also keep people from using php or it's license, because they either
misinterpret the license, or read some FUD about it, and that text isn't
clear enough to allow them to verify the claims.


>
> > removing the "PHP includes
> > the Zend Engine, freely available at <http://www.zend.com>." part, as
> only
> > php-src includes the ZE, and it isn't available from zend.com anymore
> imo.
>
> This would require relicensing the ZendEngine first. Currently
> ZendEngine uses the ZendEngine license
> https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/Zend/LICENSE
> So PHP has to fulfill the license's requirements and keep that
> reference.
> In some casual environment I asked them 5 years ago or so whether they
> want to relicense the engine which they rejected. Since I didn't really
> care I haven't further investigated.
>

yes, the Zend License mandates that the acknowledgment must be kept, but I
don't think that it would be mandatory to keep it in our license(which can
be used by other projects, which may, or may not include the Zend Engine).


>
> > Maybe also rewording the clauses about the written permission is required
> > for using the PHP name part to more generic, so projects using the
> license
> > can use it to protect their names.
> > Ofc these are just ideas from the top of my head, and IANAL.
>
> We can't forbid using the name outside the scope of the license within
> the license. For that we'd have to use trademark law. Getting
> international protection for a three letter trademark requires
> recognition and legal power of an organisation like BMW.
>

We could do what other licences do, reference the software which is shipped
with the license instead of using the PHP name explicitly, allow the
project using the license to define the copyright holder and reference that
when requiring to get a written permission from the copyright holder.
that would mean that when you are making a derived work from a software
using the PHP license, you aren't allowed to name it after the original
software.

-- 
Ferenc Kovács
@Tyr43l - http://tyrael.hu

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