Ian Lynch wrote:
> Noel J. Bergman:
> > Sam Ruby wrote:
> > > From my perspective, I think the license discussion is the essential
> > > one. TDF is now in the position where it has a historic opportunity
> > > to change their license to the Apache License.
> >
> > As I understand it, TDF should certainly be able to "replace" their
> > original LGPL license from Oracle with the Apache License.
> >
> > But I have questions about their ability to relicense new contributions,
> > based on what I read at
> > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/developers/ and the licensing
> > policy linked from there. It does not seem clear to me that TDF can
> > unilaterally relicense all contributions.
> At least to start with they don't need to change anything.
No, they don't. But, to re-quote Sam, they now have the "historic
opportunity to change their license to the Apache License", which makes it
much easier to (quoting you, now), "cooperate with ASF to make the two
projects work as harmoniously as possible."
At least some folks at TDF seem to feel slighted by recent developments. I
understand, but they should not, at least from the ASF's perspective. TDF
did nothing wrong, and there is nothing wrong with TDF. They did the best
that they could with the licensing cards dealt to them. That situation has
now changed, with the software grant to the ASF and resulting change in
licensing.
That change is essential to various parties, and while it should not be
taken to reflect negatively on TDF, nor can it be ignored. The license is,
as Sam said, "essential."
As Sam said, if TDF is willing and able to relicense, "all sorts of
frictionless exchange would be possible, and all sorts of divisions of labor
could be contemplated. In fact, the division of labor could be dynamic in
that we could experiment with all sorts of different arrangements and find
out what works best."
Which is why I raised the question regarding TDF's ability to relicense all
of the contributions it has received.
--- Noel
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