Subject: [Slightly OT] Understanding Software Licences [was Re: Proposal Suggestion - Test::Run [was Re: [Israel.pm] Fwd: Call for proposals -- Perl Foundation Grants]] From: Shlomi Fish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:13:58 +0300
}Well, I'm not a lawyer, either, but I still have a good amount of working }knowledge about software licences and how they relate to each other. The former necessarily excludes the latter. Are you familiar with contract law in America? Finland? Australia? Do you know what other people with far more expertise than you have said about this issue? http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html says: >License of Perl > >This license is the disjunction of the Artistic License and the GNU >GPL--in other words, you can choose either of those two licenses. It >qualifies as a free software license, but it may not be a real copyleft. >It is compatible with the GNU GPL because the GNU GPL is one of the >alternatives. > >We recommend you use this license for any Perl 4 or Perl 5 package you >write, to promote coherence and uniformity in Perl programming. Outside >of Perl, we urge you not to use this license; it is better to use just >the GNU GPL. Gee, even the FSF and RMS himself say, "Use the Artistic for Perl code!" }It's essential for a developer to have such a knowledge and not be }completely oblivious of such issues, because for better or for worse - }legal, ethical and moral issues affect the way we build, distribute, use }and modify software. And as a developer, I defer my less-knowledgeable position to what those before me have found and discussed. I make all my contributions available under the license of Perl, and other licenses as appropriate (my 2005 YAPC talk is also licensed CC at the request of the conference organizers, for example). I have also signed the form that gives explicit licensing for any contribution I make to Perl to the TPF under their preferred terms - have you done the same? http://www.perlfoundation.org/legal/licenses/cla.html }To battle such ignorance and give people (especially those with some }non-negligible authority) a quick-and-dirty intro to such issues, I've set up }the following wiki page: ...that anyone can edit. Anyone. Not lawyers, not people knowledgeable about contracts. Anyone. I also see on that list that you wrote an article. Just looking at the "where I stand" portion, you spend more time talking about names and terms than you do about actual licenses. So you prefer public domain, do you? Look at http://zooko.com/license_quick_ref.html and in specific, the section on "What about Public Domain?" I don't know how contracts work in Israel, and everything I've just said may be bunk - because I'm not a lawyer and have no training in contract law. But that's precisely why I don't worry about it - because smarter people than I in contract law have worked it out before me, and I'm intelligent enough to trust their judgements. -Pete K -- Pete Krawczyk perl at bsod dot net
