On Sun, 2006-07-09 at 20:27 -0700, Alex Lancaster wrote: > >>>>> "JL" == James \"Doc\" Livingston writes:
> JL> So this again brings up the three important questions: 1) Do we > JL> want to change the licencing to something more permissive? 2) If > JL> we want to, is is practical? 3) If we are, what should it be > JL> re-licenced to? > > JL> The first question, is something the copyright holders need to > JL> answer, and I'm sure they're will be plenty of options from them > JL> and the wider community. > > That said, I'm fine with relicensing, although my contributions are > probably small enough that they wouldn't require permission. For the record, I'm fine with adding an exception clause for plugins too. The real question for contributors to consider is whether they want to allow their code to be used with closed source plugins. I'm quite happy with that myself. Quite apart from the fact that I work for Fluendo and put together the mp3 plugin, I want to enable users to access as many formats as they can until the day when patents/licenses aren't a problem any more and everything can be open source. > JL> Finally is the question of what to re-licence to. The minimum > JL> change required that solves the primary reason for re-licencing > JL> would be to keep the GPL, but add an exception for GStreamer > JL> plugins. Other options include: also adding an exception for > JL> Rhythmbox plugins, using the LGPL so that we could split bits into > JL> libraries other application could use, etc. > > GPL + exception seems like the most straightforward option, and > matches what totem does. How would it apply to plugins? Would all > distributed plugins also have to be under the same exception? What > about 3rd party plugins that somebody might write and make available > on their website for including in ~/.gnome/rhythmbox/plugins. > Plugins distributed by a distro would need appropriate licensing too, yes. Plugins distributed separately by someone on their website won't cause problems, since they are not being distributed together with any incompatible code - it's only when things are distributed together that it triggers the incompatibility clauses of the GPL. J. -- Jan Schmidt [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." - Unknown _______________________________________________ rhythmbox-devel mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/rhythmbox-devel
