Hello folks,
I recently had a few discussions about the license under which Roundcube is published. Currently this is GPLv2 and I think it's time to change it.
Therefore I'd like to share some thoughts with you and invite you to share your opinions about this topic. For me there are three possible directions to go:
- Upgrade to GPLv3
Since I'm not very familiar with all the details I currently don't know what kind of changes this would involve but I assume it to be an easy and obvious step.
- Switch to AGPLv3
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License) This license was made for software which is accessed over a network and which isn't necessarily distributed in the classic way. This would require adopters to share their changes to the core program and linked stuff like plugins also if they only provide Roundcube as a service. Of course this looks very restrictive since up until now one only had to publish his/her code under GPL if Roundcube was distributed within a package (which itself needs to be GPL, too).
- Switch to LGPL
I had several requests from companies who'd like to distribute Roundcube with their commercial packages. This could be quite hard because the GPL requires all "linked" parts (for my understanding this includes plugins and skins) to be GPL too. As an advantage of publishing Roundcube under LGPL I see more potential contributors even if they don't have to share their own stuff with the community. Of course we have to check whether all the libs Roundcube requires are also available under LGPL.
For options 1) and 2) there's one addition: I think that we should exclude the skins from the GPL restrictions because the easy customization is what makes Roundcube nice and custom skins often include some copyrighted artwork and are pretty individual.
What do you think about this? Please feel free to comment the above lines.
Best regards, Thomas _______________________________________________ List info: http://lists.roundcube.net/dev/
On Jan 22, 2010, at 8:50 AM, Thomas Bruederli wrote:
- Upgrade to GPLv3
Since I'm not very familiar with all the details I currently don't
know what kind of changes this would involve but I assume it to be an
easy and obvious step.
Depending on how you read GPLv3, it may mean all libraries and plug- ins would need to be GPLv3 too.
IANAL.
There is also the BSD license and MIT license if you are looking for
a more liberal license than the GPL.
I have seen projects use the Apache license, which you may want to
evaluate.
The Fedora Project is very strict about the licensing of the packages
in the Fedora distribution. There are good resources for licenses at :
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing/FAQ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing
For options 1) and 2) there's one addition: I think that we should
exclude the skins from the GPL restrictions because the easy customization
is what makes Roundcube nice and custom skins often include some copyrighted artwork and are pretty individual.
Content is not code, and a license for code is generally not a good
license for content.
Skins are a grey area, they are part code, part content, but I think
a skin leans more toward content.
A Creative Commons license may be more appropriate for skins.
Thomas Bruederli wrote:
What do you think about this? Please feel free to comment the above lines.
From my point of view there's a choice between GPLv3 and LGPL and personally I'm closer to GPLv3, but I'm open for a discussion. About skins, its license could be less restrictive.
A.L.E.C wrote:
Thomas Bruederli wrote:
What do you think about this? Please feel free to comment the above lines.
And a list of libs that we're using in Roundcube with their licenses:
PEAR PHP Net_Socket PHP Net_SMTP PHP Mail_Mime BSD MDB2 BSD Auth_SASL BSD Net_Sieve BSD tnef_decoder GPL Iloha libs GPL html2text GPL enriched GPL jQuery GPL/MIT TinyMCE GPL googiespell GPL others are "free"
On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 8:59 AM, A.L.E.C alec@alec.pl wrote:
A.L.E.C wrote:
Thomas Bruederli wrote:
What do you think about this? Please feel free to comment the above lines.
And a list of libs that we're using in Roundcube with their licenses:
PEAR PHP Net_Socket PHP Net_SMTP PHP Mail_Mime BSD MDB2 BSD Auth_SASL BSD Net_Sieve BSD tnef_decoder GPL Iloha libs GPL html2text GPL enriched GPL jQuery GPL/MIT TinyMCE GPL googiespell GPL others are "free"
Good list, Alec.
As for the RoundCube license. Even though I'm not a huge fan of anything-GPL, the license shouldn't be an issue. The only parts that are effected are plugins and skins which people write and even then, the GPL just forces them to release these bits to their customers with full source code. They don't have to release anything to the public. And they can even charge for GPL software.
I don't see a real issue even for commercial entities, not sure what kind of IP some people would try to hide in a plugin or a wordpress skin. The only issue is that e.g. when I purchase a plugin or a skin, I'm allowed to distribute it free of charge as well - GPL.
As for AGPL - I think even if we would get everyone to agree, that would be a huge setback for RoundCube's adoption, because then the "advantages" of the GPL (especially for commercial entities) would be void.
All in all, I think it's next to impossible to switch RoundCube from the GPL to something more liberal or restrictive now because it requires that everyone who sent in a patch in the past will ACK the license change.
I could totally see that we make the core LGPL, in factor, I'd +1 that right away because it would allow people to distribute plugins using their own maybe more liberal or more proprietary license. On the other hand, this kind of change could also create a license chaos because right now, it's all 1 - GPL.
Till _______________________________________________ List info: http://lists.roundcube.net/dev/
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A.L.E.C -
chasd -
Thomas Bruederli -
till