tuxmath-devel

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Licensing Information

[Brendan L. <che...@gm...>]

Deepak,

I'd assume we'd want to stick with GPL v3 like the other titles, unless
anyone sees a problem with that. Of course, you're the author.

Can we not detect the display resolution at runtime?

Sent from my friendly neighborhood Droid; pardon the brevity.
On Aug 11, 2012 12:41 PM, "deepak aggarwal" <dee...@gm...>
wrote:

> Hi Brendan
>
> I want to know licensing information that is to included in source files
> so that I can complete my work. I am thinking of including exact licensing
> information that is already present in original tuxmath source files.
>
> What's your thought on it?
>
> And if you want to test my app then just tell me resolution of your
> mobile. I will send you apk file. :)
>
>
> Deepak
>

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Licensing Information

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Deepak and Brendan,



On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Brendan Luchen <che...@gm...>wrote:

> Deepak,
>
> I'd assume we'd want to stick with GPL v3 like the other titles, unless
> anyone sees a problem with that. Of course, you're the author.
>

I generally would favor GPLv3+ (mainly because I favor GPL and v3 is the
current version, not so much that I'm worried about "Tivo-ization" or want
a specific patent clause).  The biggest practical disadvantage is that
GPLv3 is unequivocally not compatible with Apple's App Store terms.
 According to many, including the FSF, GPLv2 isn't compatible with the App
Store either, but the issues seem to be such that no once can complain to
Apple except the authors of the software in question, and Apple doesn't
seem to care unless/until the authors try to complain.

As for tuxmath's licensing, it traditionally was considered to be "GPLv2 or
later", except that the licensing was not at all well-documented, and many
source files lacked any licensing or copyright terms at all.  We tried to
clean all this up a couple of years ago, and I thought it best to go to a
uniform "GPLv3 or later".   However, I don't think anyone within the
project would object to use under "GPLv2 or later" terms.  The only code I
think we really cannot do that for would be the liblinebreak code which,
IIRC, was copied from an old version of gettext by Tim Holy.  That code is
definitely "GPLv3 or later".  If we want to use some of tuxmath's current
code under something other than "GPLv3 or later", we need to at least try
to email anyone who has made significant contributions in the last couple
of years and see if anyone objects.

One thing is pretty clear, however - tuxmath has always been a GPL project,
and we don't have the legal standing to use the source except


-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Licensing Information

[Brendan L. <che...@gm...>]

All,

> I generally would favor GPLv3+ (mainly because I favor GPL and v3 is 
> the current version, not so much that I'm worried about "Tivo-ization" 
> or want a specific patent clause).  The biggest practical disadvantage 
> is that GPLv3 is unequivocally not compatible with Apple's App Store 
> terms.  According to many, including the FSF, GPLv2 isn't compatible 
> with the App Store either, but the issues seem to be such that no once 
> can complain to Apple except the authors of the software in question, 
> and Apple doesn't seem to care unless/until the authors try to complain.

Eew. Apple is always making things difficult. What's the upshot, then? 
Does it mean that ("technically") we can't or shouldn't submit GPLv* 
software to the App Store, or that if we do, and some evil developer 
were to steal, modify, repackage and profit from TM, that we'd have no 
legal power to stop it?

I guess a multiple license scenario, like what Qt does, could enable the 
iPhone version to have a compatible license, but I have no idea what 
that entails.

> One thing is pretty clear, however - tuxmath has always been a GPL 
> project, and we don't have the legal standing to use the source except

Think the rest of your message got cut off? AFAIK, though, Deepak's 
project is a complete rewrite and isn't bound by existing source. I 
could be mistaken.

-Brendan

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Licensing Information

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

One thing is pretty clear, however - tuxmath has always been a GPL project,
>> and we don't have the legal standing to use the source except
>>
>
> Think the rest of your message got cut off? AFAIK, though, Deepak's
> project is a complete rewrite and isn't bound by existing source. I could
> be mistaken.


Yes, got cut off.

But the important point is that this is a re-write, so we can use a license
that doesn't raise any issues with Apple's developer agreement.  I missed
the earlier part of the thread and was just talking about use of previous
GPL tuxmath code.  I think something unrestrictive like the MIT or BSD
license, or perhaps Apache, would be a good choice for any OSS project we
want to get into the App Store.  There are GPLv2 apps in the App Store, to
be sure.  They get around the requirement of providing source code by
offering it for download on their own site, since the user can't get it
through Apple.  This doesn't strictly satisfy the GPL, because Apple is
distributing binary-only software.  Apple claims they aren't distributors
via the App Store any more than Best Buy is a distributor when you buy
something in a box, but this argument seems specious to me.  As for the
GPLv3, it explicitly requires that any user who gets the binary also can
get not just the source, but any digital keys or signatures required to run
modified versions on the same hardware.  This isn't compatible with Apple's
iOS policies by any interpretation.

So, if we have a complete rewrite, let's just go with a permissive OSS
license.  I'm a fan of the GPL, but in this scenario I'm more attracted by
getting our software in front of all the kids who have iPads and iPhones,
irrespective of what I think about Apple's control-freak behavior.

-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main