Are these benchmark tools distributed? If not, there's no need to upgrade
the license. If they are, perhaps it makes sense to include them in the
TigerVNC project?
They're distributed via the VirtualGL CVS repository. I'm not sure I
understand what you mean about upgrading the license. Wouldn't
bringing in GPL v3 code obligate me to release the whole project under
GPL v3? That is my understanding from reading several legal blogs on
Yes, in that case. I was thinking about the case with tools that you are
only using internally and not distributing. In that case, no license
change would be needed, since GPL only covers distribution.
If we don't know, why should it affect our choice of license? It's like
developing for an unknown user base.
I just don't want to paint ourselves into a corner. I'm concerned
about the fact that GPL v3 is not backward compatible with LGPL v2.1
and GPL v2. As I said before, I think I'd be more comfortable with
this move if the lion's share of other VNC projects were also moving
to GPL v3.
Someone has to be first, right? One main reason why we created TigerVNC
was that we should be able to work faster, move faster. So it might not be
surprising that the "slower" projects have not yet migrated.
It is possible to downgrade if all authors says OK.
But "all authors" in the case of VNC includes everyone that has worked
on the project all the way back to AT&T Labs. It would be impossible
to contact or obtain permission from all of those companies and
individuals. The provisions of the license allow you to use a later
version of the GPL without obtaining permission from the authors, but
not an earlier version.
This is incorrect; there would be no need to contact them all, since they
have already agreed to "v2+" - this is what we have today. We would only
need to get OK from developers submitting code under a v3 license.
Currently, with just 4 developers, this shouldn't be a big problem.
If you/we do not like v3 at all, then we need to migrate to "v2 only", but
that is probably not doable.
Right, so anyone can choose to upgrade to v3 if they want. I just
don't like the idea of eliminating the possibility of using the code
under v2.
I respect that, but the motivation for doing this is to prevent people
from using the code in a way that we don't but which is still allowed by
v2. Say, IGEL.
But I'm interested to know why they upgraded.
The announcement is at http://news.samba.org/announcements/samba_gplv3/.
I think a lot of projects are upgrading just because they drank RMS's
Kool-Aid. If we do upgrade, I don't want that to be our reason.
We are not pushing v3 because we think it's cool, but because we think
it's a better license, which solves problems present in v2.
I've worked both sides of the fence, both proprietary and open source,
and I feel that the FSF's position is increasingly hostile toward the
co-existence of proprietary and OSS code. This belies the fact that
commercial interests are really what are driving most of OSS
development these days (TigerVNC being no exception), and often the
only way for these commercial interests to monetize OSS projects is to
add proprietary plug-ins to them (RealVNC being a prime case in
point.)
We at Cendio have also a long experience with both proprietary and open
source, and we are of course doing all this for commercial interests. We
do not believe, however, that "proprietary plug-ins" is the only way to
make money.
The GPL v3 embodies some of this anti-commercial sentiment -- for
instance, it now explicitly spells out that you can't dynamically link
a proprietary DLL with a GPL v3 application. I believe this is a
draconian provision which needlessly limits the applicability of the
program, causes many potential legal problems for developers working
on proprietary O/S's such as Windows or OS X, and hinders potential
adoption of the code, all in favor of trying to solve a problem which
really isn't a problem at all.
As far as I understand, this policy is not new to v3; it's been in the FSF
FAQ for many years and applies to v2 as well.
Best regards,
---
Peter Åstrand ThinLinc Chief Developer
Cendio AB http://www.cendio.com
Wallenbergs gata 4
583 30 Linköping Phone: +46-13-21 46 00
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