Hi,
This has been discussed many times, and something I've been pushing
forward slowly, and has now come to fruition - we're changing the
license of Kamaelia.
Rather than being the (as it turns out) difficult to understand
Mozilla tri-license, we're changing the license on new releases to the
Apache 2.0 license.
For those wondering "what sort of license is the Apache 2 license -
it's a BSD-like license, and considered by the FSF a free software
license. Basically, you can use the code under sensible terms that
don't force you to release your code in any particular way.
Since all code is either copyright BBC or under contributer agreements
allowing this, there aren't any legal issues. Also I've been upfront
with everyone over the past couple of years I've been slowing prodding
this forward that this was the plan. I'm pretty sure I've discussed
this with everyone relevant.
If by any chance I've missed you, or you've changed your mine or
you've contributed code and have a problem with this, please get in
contact offline. And I'll work with you to resolve it. (Even if it
means removal of code - just because legally we wouldn't have to, if
someone objects, morally I think discussing it and then removal of
really strong feelings are felt is appropriate)
The key reasons for the change are as follows:
* To simplify things for people taking code from us. You no
longer need to worry about whether you need to release your
code or not.
* To simplify contribution. Clause 5 of the apache 2 license
is pretty awesome:
5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state
otherwise, any Contribution intentionally submitted for
inclusion in the Work by You to the Licensor shall be
under the terms and conditions of this License, without
any additional terms or conditions. Notwithstanding the
above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms
of any separate license agreement you may have executed
with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
Contributor agreements are still preferable, but pragmatically
the above clause helps in trivial cases.
* Since 2004 (Kamaelia's original release), the BBC has released
several more projects, and now understands much better the
importance of releasing code that matches the community. As a
result, the apache 2 license is well known and understood, and
used by the BBC glow library for example. (Personally, I think
that's a huge step)
* Finally, the existance of the Mini Axon tutorial has always led
to questions regarding what "import Axon" at the top of a piece
of code means. Does it mean our Axon or yours? If it's yours the
the GPL can't apply, since you didn't copy our code. Switching
to the Apache 2 license that makes it clear that our license
doesn't change your licensing.
Anyway, I'm delighted to be able to make this announcement. I'm making
changes to the repository now to reflect this.
Michael.
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