[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       xmlbeans-dev
Subject:    RE: XQuery Integration
From:       "Cliff Schmidt" <cliff () bea ! com>
Date:       2004-03-25 23:27:56
Message-ID: 4C2F1577F2EF2840A9AE9EC61860C881963606 () usseex01 ! amer ! bea ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

robert burrell donkin wrote on Thursday, March 25, 2004 2:56 PM:

> On 24 Mar 2004, at 06:53, Dutta Satadip wrote:
> 
>>  To integrate any other open source product do we have restrictions
>> on what liscences are compatible.
> 
> this particular issue is reasonably complex and has (yet again) been a
> matter of debate with the apache community. i believe that the ASF
> board will be discussing licensing policy issues again soon. the best
> advice is: when in any doubt, ask on an appropriate list (either
> general or licensing).
> 
> anyway (breaking my well intended advice) AFAIK depending on GPL or
> LGPL is not allowed. some versions of the MPL are ok whereas others
> are not.

It also might make a difference whether we would need to 
redistribute the source or not.  As Robert says, the debate is 
still going, but one of the suggested principles is that every piece 
of source code is downloaded from Apache is licensed under the Apache 
License.  This means that if the original source was licensed under 
something else, its terms would have to be a subset of those in the 
Apache License (basically, BSD, MIT, and Apache-like licenses would 
qualify; MPL, CPL, etc would not).  Of course, if the copyright 
holder(s) choose to also license under Apache for us, that would work 
even better.

If did not need to distribute the source, one of the proposals to 
the board right now is that binary components can be included in an 
ASF distribution if 1) we include the external license prominently 
in the distribution LICENSE.txt file and follow all the attribution
requirements called for, and 2) the external license allows for 
redistribution in combination with code under the Apache License.

It is requirement 2) that prevents us from including a .jar 
dependency that is licensed under the GPL or LGPL to be used in an 
Apache distribution.


So the short answer is: if the source needs to be included in our
distribution, it must be BSD/MIT/Apache or the like.  If we just 
need a jar, we can get away with CPL/MPL or the like, but not GPL
or LGPL.

I completely agree with Robert's advice that, when in doubt, ask;
but this is roughly where the consensus seems to be today.

Cliff



- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail:   xmlbeans-dev-unsubscribe@xml.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: xmlbeans-dev-help@xml.apache.org
Apache XMLBeans Project -- URL: http://xml.apache.org/xmlbeans/


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]