On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Nick Wellnhofer <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'd like to upload a Clownfish 0.4 developer release to CPAN in order to get
> some diagnostics from CPAN Testers. Here's the branch:
>
> https://github.com/nwellnhof/lucy-clownfish/commits/0.004003_001
That would be very helpful. I would love to get those damn Charmonizer
problems squashed! Thank you for volunteering.
> Does a CPAN dev release have to be voted on or can I simply go ahead?
tl;dr Thanks for asking first, and please go ahead.
For the complete rationale... well, Apache release policy happens to be an
area of expertise for me, so I'll blather on for a bit and maybe a couple of
you will find it interesting.
Legally, redistribution of modified works is allowed under the copyright
license granted by the Apache License 2.0. However, the ALv2 doesn't grant a
trademark license and if someone were to redistribute a patched version of
Lucy or Clownfish we are unhappy with we can call them on trademark
infringement. That's the enforcement mechanism.
As to the policy question... First, this modified redistribution is intended
for consumption by a testing service and few if any users will encounter it.
Second, the redistribution consists of minor modifications on top of already
released code, so it is not an attempt to get around making official Apache
releases in accordance with Apache Release Policy. Third, the motivation is
clearly to help the Lucy dev community, not some other third party.
So the Lucy PMC is not being derelict by allowing this modified redistribution
for a specific non-public purpose; indeed we should be grateful for it. No
vote is necessary, though this sort of thing should be handled on a
case-by-case basis.
For more info, check out the new Release Policy and Release Distribution
Policy, which came online last year (and which I helped draft) -- they should
be much clearer than the policy documents which were live while Lucy was
incubating from 2010-2012.
http://www.apache.org/dev/release-distribution#policy
http://www.apache.org/legal/release-policy#policy
I hope that answer's Nick's question authoritatively enough that we can feel
confident about proceeding with his plan without further ado.
Marvin Humphrey
