I see no effort to weaken affiliation with LibreOffice. I see prominent
affiliation by participants on Apache OpenOffice with LibreOffice (and
consequently vice versa). That there are individuals on each project that find
cooperation unappealing has not hindered cross-contribution.
Perhaps one source of misunderstanding at AOO is the notion that a contribution
to Apache OpenOffice is transitively available to LibreOffice by virtue of
ALv2. As Michael Meeks remarks, it is not quite that easy (but not impossible,
as is the case for the reverse direction). It does require a level of
attribution and preservation of provenance that tends to be disdained among
some open-source communities. ("Relicensing" is an unfortunate myth. But
combination into an other-licensed work is not and it is completely possible
with ALv2-licensed material.)
In the case of modest patches, I think it is a matter of where the contributor
who has the rights to do so actually contributes the patch. It is strange to
affirm any license other than that used by the project the contribution is made
to. It is also awkward to submit a patch in more than one place.
Contributing to a shared place with it being clear there are no additional
strings attached gets around all of this. That could happen when a patch is
submitted without additional ceremony to a commonly-subscribed security list,
for example. And, in that case, a multi-license declaration might work more
easily too.
- Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Phipps [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 17:18
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Question related derivative code based on our Apache licensed code
On 17 Jan 2012, at 01:07, Joe Schaefer wrote:
> Did you have trouble with the part where
> he wrote "this mailing list"? In any case
> we have 1-way compatibility from AL to LGPL
> so there's little technical need for it.
No, Joe, I spotted that, but thanks for your concern.
This meme only arises in Rob's communications in connection with LibreOffice
contributors being encouraged to join Apache. Licensing is as much a community
choice as it is a mechanical matter, and as a member of both communities I have
observed that the apparent encouragement to weaken affiliation with LibreOffice
diminishes Apache's credibility among many LibreOffice community members.
My comment to Rob was by way of a reminder that it would be better to stop
acting divisively like this. My apologies if this brevity was confusing.
S.
