Re: [Plib-devel] Any resolution on the license?

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

> Dave McClurg wrote:
> 
> i was in favor of leaving the license as LGPL and placing NDA calls outside plib
> using function overrides or hooks.  this keeps the plib project flexible and
> improving.  i also don't think the developer is responsible for supplying the
> end-user with the compilation tools and SDKs.

That's certainly true.

>  it that was true, much opensource would be in trouble.  if someone can explain
> why this approach does not comply with the terms of the LGPL in spirit and law,
> i would appreciate it.  i'm doing console development using plib.

I think that this is perfectly acceptable - and the very fact that you have
contributed so much to PLIB that you might not have done if it wasn't under
LGPL shows the value of the license.

Since I havn't signed the Sony NDA, I obviously don't know anything about the
specific nature of the secret API's.  That is the crux of this issue:

  * If the Sony API's can be made to look enough like OpenGL or other base
    libraries that PLIB uses such that PLIB does not have to be modified
    in order to make it work with those API's - then we don't have a problem.

  * If those API's cannot be made to look enough like OpenGL (or whatever) and
    you have to hack PLIB - then you'd have to find a way to make the changes
    to PLIB without including anything that SONY would find objectionable. Then
    you could publish these cryptic changes that none of the rest of us would
    understand - but which would be conditionally compiled out for everyone
    not developing for PS-2.

The only other thing you'd have to do to obey the LGPL is to tell your customers
where to get PLIB in the unlikely event they should ever wish to rebuild
their console game using a new version.  That's silly, I know - but it's
the rule.  You could put that in teeny-tiny letters in the manual or probably
even on your official web site.

  * If you feel you cannot even do *that* and you need to show revealing things
    about Sony's oh-so-secret stuff in order to get PLIB to work - then you
    are truly screwed.  Throw $10,000 in my direction and I'll write you a new
    private version that's utterly free of restrictions...that's negotiable!  :-)

> BTW: someone on opengl-gamedev posted this link for opengl on the PS2 console:
> http://www.dataplus.co.jp/OpenGL4ps2.html

Yep - interesting.  I'm guessing that some people want to use a *different* API
(maybe a lower level one) - and that's the problem for them.


Dave:

  Is there a way for you to share your NDA-limited "function overrides or hooks" with other
PS-2 console users?   I know you couldn't reveal them to (for example) me - because I
have not signed the PS-2 NDA - but to other developers perhaps?   It would be nice for
there to be a standard version of those things so that:

a) They didn't have to be re-invented.

b) PS-2 developers wouldn't have to worry that they were
   doing something unacceptable either to the PLIB community
   or to SONY.

c) I could even write a note to go into the PLIB README
   saying that I felt this was appropriate usage and
   not contrary to the spirit of the LGPL or my intended
   interpretation of it in the context of PLIB.

-- 
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