At 14:14 10/04/2001 +0200, Patrick Spingys wrote:
>Hi Mozilla-Team!
>
>Why is it not possible, that you publish your new code and your changes
>on Mozilla under the GPL (program) / LGPL (libraries) ?
>
>I know, that at the moment the license is NPL/MPL. But why can not
>everybody who have written code for mozilla give a comment on this parts
>of code, that this parts are licensed under the (L)GPL/NPL/MPL ?
>And why do you not publish now the new code what you write and your
>changes unter de (L)GPL, too?
>
>I think it is better, if parts are under an GNU-license then nothing.
Check the newsgroup postings on this. In short there is a plan to have
some kind of dual licence with GPL available however there are a number of
problems with the current proposed scheme.
Changes to existing files shouldn't change the original licence unless the
original author and subsequent contributors to that file agree. As the
licence is file based, changing an individual file given the nature of the
GPL also affects other files used with it, possibly without the knowledge
of agreement of anyone else. That's why its such a sensitive issue, both
for those who originally contributed who for one reason or another don't
with their work to be licenced under any other licence other than the one
used; and for distributors of the code who wish to combine their own code
either under their own licence or the MPL and want to have absolute
certainty as to the licence in force at the time.
Adding new files to an existing build with a dual licence has the same
problem.
Simon
>Patrick
==================================
We are not the stuff that abides,
but patterns that perpetuate themselves.
Norbert Weiner
