A disclaimer: I'm not a significant contributor to the project, so I'll go along with whatever is decided.
Have you considered dual-licensing GPL and Apache? It seems that Apache is incompatible with the GPL. Making the project incompatible with GPL projects seems like a step backward, IMO. JoshN On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 12:12 AM, Marc-André Moreau <marcandre.mor...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi FreeRDP developers, > It has been in our plans for a while now to change the current licensing of > FreeRDP to something more permissive. We are currently using GPLv2 for > everything, which is not necessarily a good thing, especially when it comes > to the libraries. LGPL could be a choice, but I am not convinced. > I looked at the various popular permissive software licenses and one that > stood out was the Apache License 2.0: > http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html > The Apache Software Foundation is quite big and is also quite active. There > is a good amount of good open source projects using the license. Also, it is > a license that Google particularly likes for its own open source software. It > is compatible with a lot of licenses, including GPLv3. One small problem that > can be worked around though with ASL is that it is not compatible with GPLv2. > This means that anything under GPLv2 that would use FreeRDP librairies under > ASL would need to upgrade to GPLv3. It's a bit annoying, but not too bad, > since there aren't that many projects that would be affected by such a > change. Besides our UIs (if we keep them GPL'ed), Remmina would be affected, > but I asked Vic and he seems open to the idea. > The Apache Software License would increase our compatibility with crypto > libraries which often have compatibility problems with GPL. Also, if we have > our librairies in ASL, we would allow non-GPL versions of FreeRDP to be made > for potential distribution in GPL-unfriendly environments such as Apple's App > Store. Personally, I think it's just sad that google applications like VLC > have been removed from the App Store because developers themselves made a > complaint. People have strong disagreements in what to do in such cases, but > the end result is still a desolating mess and I'd rather clear such potential > issues before they happens. I'm not saying we're about to get into such > issues any time soon, but since a license change doesn't happen very often we > might as well resolve this issue now. > Another reason for switching to a permissive license would be to make FreeRDP > more attractive for people with commercial interests. We already have > companies using the software in thin clients, and it's ok this way, but I'd > rather get rid of the GPL chilling effect to get more people involved. Also, > we can't ignore the fact that we're providing an open source implementation > of a Microsoft specification, and that Microsoft owns the patents on it but > promises not to sue people that use it. In my mind, that pretty much makes a > lot of the extra protection from the GPL worth not that much after all. > I would like to make this license change for FreeRDP 0.9, if possible. I went > quickly over the names in the headers of the source code, there isn't that > much left from rdesktop, so most people that need to be ask for their consent > should be on freerdp-devel. Besides Vic, I have also talked with Jay, and he > is also open to the idea. To repeat what I told him: "A free software license > should help it grow, not stand in its way". > What is your opinion on this? Are there any strong disagreements, or > suggestions? > Best regards, > - Marc-Andre > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > The modern datacenter depends on network connectivity to access resources > and provide services. The best practices for maximizing a physical server's > connectivity to a physical network are well understood - see how these > rules translate into the virtual world? > http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnlfb > _______________________________________________ > Freerdp-devel mailing list > Freerdp-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freerdp-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The modern datacenter depends on network connectivity to access resources and provide services. The best practices for maximizing a physical server's connectivity to a physical network are well understood - see how these rules translate into the virtual world? http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnlfb _______________________________________________ Freerdp-devel mailing list Freerdp-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freerdp-devel
