Re: [xmlvm-users] Licence issues

[Jacob N. <jac...@gm...>]

2009/10/5 Sascha Haeberling <sa...@xm...>

> I absolutely I agree with Kevin on this. If you make a contribution, you
> will get a linking exception and you can use XMLVM for your commercial
> projects. I don't see how trying to form a different project is of any
> benefit to you or to the OpenSource community.
> Let me emphasize that we are still quite young and we are still in the
> process to form the OpenSource nature of the project. We are open to other
> licensing models but so far this seems to be the one that works for most.
> However, if we see that a lot of the people in our community have problems
> with it, we can think about it.
>
> Maybe this is the time to ask others on the mailing list, that so far have
> been quiet, to see what their opinion is. Any input is welcome.
>

First, for those who didnt dig it out yet, a pointer to the earlier
discussions:
https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=CD37C2F806D14E59922E19D83B7AB49F%40TusharPC&forum_name=xmlvm-users


Quick summary, as far as I understand it (please correct me if Im wrong!),
in the perspective of a Java developer wanting to port code for project XYZ
to iPhone:


1) XMLVM code transform is GPL.

2) XMLVM's supporting libriaries, such as the Java bridge to iPhone classes
(java_lang_String.m, java_lang_System.m...) is GPL.

3) By making "a contribution" a company/individual can get XMLVM's
supporting libriaries in a LGPL-like version (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL_linking_exception)

By itself 1) does not in any way make any restrictions on XYZ (project can
be close source), but any objective-C code generated by XMLVM will be using
XMLVM's supporting libriaries. Anything linked with XMLVM's supporting
libriaries MUST therefore be made GPL. Thus 2) requires all ported code to
be GPL.


For us (an image improvement company - http://carambaimaging.com/ -
considering an iPhone port of our closed source application) the situation
is that we - before engaging - must somehow estimate costs and time spended.

It came as a chok for me this morning when I realized 2) and that there
might be a problem (we must keep the source closed - even if I personally
disagree). So we will have to rely on 3) - and so, the question is how big
"a contribution" is.

It would be great if I could give my boss an estimate of what "a
contribution" maximally is, so he could count the cost (in these times, he
is always counting  :-|


So here are my proposals:

A) Make it more visible that close source projects need to get
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL_linking_exception

B) Come with a max of what is requred for you to grant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL_linking_exception



(BTW: xmlvm.org says "To subscribe, visit our contact page to find a link"
but on http://www.xmlvm.org/contact/ there is no link. I know I'm blind but
please also link to the mailing list from there :-)

Yours,
Jacob


-- 
Jacob Nordfalk