A possible solution might be a parallel licensing approach. Multi-licensing is applied frequently, take for example Perl and Ruby. Another striking example is MySQL:
http://keionline.org/ec-mysql "MySQL is made available to the public in two parallel ways. Most users obtain it as free/libre software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2; the code is released in this way gratis. MySQL is also available under a different, proprietary license for a fee. This approach was able to provide (1) an attractive platform for developers looking to use FLOSS, and secured MySQL enormous mind share, particularly in supporting content rich web pages and other Internet applications, and (2) the ability for paying clientèle to combine and distribute MySQL in customizations that they do not want to make available to the public as free/libre software under the GPL." However, it might be complicated to get the approval for this from all current and past Wesnoth developers. This might be a solution for the Frogatto project. (This game is being developed by some key Wesnoth developers,[1] who hope to generate revenue by distributing their partially GPL'ed game on the mobile market.) Another possible solution might be to add a license exception. Relatively well known is the GPL font exception ("As a special exception, [...]"),[2] but exceptions have also been added to GPL software packages.[3] Best regards, Norbert [1] http://www.frogatto.com/team [2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException [3] http://www.syntext.com/legal/SernaFree-GPL-EXCEPTION.txt "Additional rights granted beyond the GPL [...]" http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html "[...] with the following clarification and special exception." ---------- > [Chris Hopman:] > Also, I'm uncomfortable with the implication that the project is > getting enough money from this distribution to overlook any license > violation. If that is the case, then I would be much happier with > Rusty's suggestion of making such a license exception clear. _______________________________________________ Wesnoth-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
