Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:46:27 +0200 From: Marco =?utf-8?q?Br=C3=B6der?= <marco.broeder@gmx.eu> To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: License Framework: Develop Best Practices Message-ID: <201006150247.20325.marco.broeder@gmx.eu>
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--nextPart1383202.sYq4vTIhv0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello, I know the ports license framework is very new and not mature yet. But it is not very useful in its current state, because several popular=20 licenses are missing and some license foo is not right / specific enough to= be=20 considered legally correct (for example there is no 'one BSD License', ther= e=20 are at least three of them, all legally different). The legal consequences = of=20 even very small differences can be very huge. We actually have to make this= =20 legally right or the whole thing is useless. Some maintainers already added some license foo to their ports. At the mome= nt=20 there is more guessing than knowing what actually should be done from a=20 maintainers point of view. This is especially true for dual / multi / combo= =20 licensing (for example 'GPLv2 or any later version' is not really the same = as=20 'GPLv2 or GPLv3' combo). Before this even grows, could we please start developing best practices and= =20 document them into Porters Handbook, as soon as possible? Thanks! I will start with a few points: *** bsd.license.db.mk *** We really need to rework it. It should at least contain the most popular / often used licenses -and- the= ir=20 =2Dcorrect- versions. The latter is not always the case at the moment. And = the=20 versions should have only -one- format, not multiples. I suggest to always = use=20 a something like 'LGPLv2.1' and not 'LGPL21'. At least it has to be consist= ent=20 across all licenses. I find it especially important to have a expression for 'version X or any=20 later version' (for example 'LGPLv2+'), since the following dummy example i= s=20 not adequate: LICENSE=3D LGPLv2 LGPLv2.1 LGPLv3 LGPLv3.1 LGPLv3.2 LICENSE_COMB=3D dual =2E.. and so on for every future versions - it does not scale well and has = to be=20 changed with every new future version. Instead it should be just 'LGPLv2+'= =20 and stay there unchanged forever. Here is my suggestion what should be there at a minimum (probably more=20 needed): *** ARTLv1.0 # Artistic License 1.0 ARTLv2.0 # Artistic License 2.0 ASLv1.1 # Apache License 1.1 ASLv2.0 # Apache License 2.0 BSD-2-clause # Simplified BSD License BSD-3-clause # Modified or New BSD License BSD-4-clause # Original BSD License BSLv1.0 # Boost Software License 1.0 CDDLv1.0 # Common Development and Distribution License 1.0 EPLv1.0 # Eclipse Public License 1.0 GFDLv1.1 # GNU Free Documentation License 1.1 GFDLv1.2 # GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 GFDLv1.3 # GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 GPLv2 # GNU General Public License 2 GPLv2+ # GNU General Public License 2 or any later version GPLv3 # GNU General Public License 3 GPLv3+ # GNU General Public License 3 or any later version ISC # ISC License LGPLv2 # GNU Lesser General Public License 2 LGPLv2+ # GNU Lesser General Public License 2 or any later version LGPLv2.1 # GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1 LGPLv2.1+ # GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1 or any later version LGPLv3 # GNU Lesser General Public License 3 LGPLv3+ # GNU Lesser General Public License 3 or any later version MIT # MIT license MPLv1.0 # Mozilla Public License 1.0 MPLv1.1 # Mozilla Public License 1.1 PD # Public Domain license X11 # X11 license *** There are probably more licenses and / or versions to add or to change. And there are most likely more issues to discuss ... =2D-=20 Regards --nextPart1383202.sYq4vTIhv0 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAABCAAGBQJMFs2YAAoJEEjQ6Txo1AoUeg4P/i7GqcuOcaje28yTmluB2z5t PAJ16hFx/45+4R3tCSvFAraUGHxtz5//kfyObRkjaw2DVM1VMSYxiEfSlCD8S5dc u1Ag3lNbjHll33rrR3NSMSXeoqtact+E95ynouBAh/yJoN8vW0idW0hpc3do5SLr 4siSphOGj+K/up7g2TLTqAwnvIPda8vl/4E9wxv7+9NJrM/AyLAkGx7LcW6nuzaS Y5TxPHXjDehb+Hux1GDJmrk0vOHjLoTISU3Tefk/VpA4H4kbvTuuwJ9XKVBNr9tD S9QCzUL1QxSB2a0Bpa7qBQuffeSVcupqceHZZMJ8+orjOQ4Ql4VfKPmZsVG6gcHM LoSl4+lyVMcMpzVl+eFoGWkxQpfkGkJ7ZiW3YYz10e2tC6cJInGGcsCbEmUzrkGg UbqzZuujSf75CUu83YtIKkIBzdNBEjoAHc5+fTwnG1a5fOQPREGN0r/L/dT2zhXY oJSQqGYACDfxdyX+IlhK4lUi2EjblWj9r18q2qLFajWSOVvo9roa/fuNbZP2b2Sj C1n1yP/QTtZTeiSClNk67U8H7hwRKLdqVETE+ew4g05eagG5iLexMl3hPL1VA6KS r1or3VhQEPf0QXoOmUtxVOfKLJcIizemFjsOHmmef2TYkXV0FAWT/TVUb65qiah6 kN97RDGjjykaS8LDVXS9 =n3qn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart1383202.sYq4vTIhv0--
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