On Monday, September 1, 2003, at 06:22 pm, Fran�ois LETELLIER (ObjectWeb) wrote:
Hi all,
well it's up to each organization to define its own policy. AFAIK, there are discussions between ASF and ObjectWeb to find ways of coping with license discrepancies because it's worth for technical reasons. Apparently, people are not parochial, and both sides are ready to envision the necessary steps. The idea is not to throw the baby away with the bath water but instead to seize the opportunity of cooperation - for JOnAS is already a J2EE-grade (though not "certified") app server and the projects teams could bring some expertise.
James' point is good advocacy for the APL. However the question here is not a question of license, but a question of policy. It'd be a choice for JOnAS teams to change license (keeping in mind that all copyright holders would have to agree), just as much as it'd be a choice for Geronimo teams to take on then LGPL - or any other OSL.
Just to be clear. We have *no* choice at Apache. We *cannot* legally use any LGPL or GPL code.
In my understanding, James argues that the LGPL drawback is its viral aspect - which contaminates other pieces of software. However, sticking to the APL-or-nothing standpoint is just as viral, since it requires that all other pieces of software, for being taken aboard, be under the same license flavor.
No. There are many licences that BSD / ASF style licences can work with. It just cannot work with LGPL or GPL. i.e. its just LGPL and GPL which are viral & can't work with other commercial or open source licences.
It's a conceptual shift from viral license to viral policy ;-) Hence the need for case by case assessments and common thinking on possible solutions.
I don't follow. Pretty much any other licence but *GPL would do. We're not asking you to use ASL - though BSD-compatible licences are cool - choose any other you like and we'll probably be able to work together. However stick with *GPL and we have no choice whatsoever, we can't use any *GPL software.
James ------- http://radio.weblogs.com/0112098/
