Re: [Muine] Re: GStreamer Relicensing

[Jorn Baayen <jbaayen gnome org>]

On Tue, 2005-01-11 at 01:24 -0500, Matthew Good wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-01-11 at 02:25 +0100, Jorn Baayen wrote:
> > Out of shameless curiousity, what makes adding a clause so bad? 
> 
> Confusion?  Inconsistency?  I guess I don't have particular concerns
> with the actual terms of the clause, but I feel like there's something
> to be said for sticking to pristine licenses for the sake of
> consistency.  I suppose this is a short and fairly clear clause, though
> I think there is a value to having the GPL as a standard.  When I see
> that an application is licensed under the GPL I immediately know what I
> can or can't do with the code, whereas if lots of applications start
> adding clauses to the GPL the situation becomes a bit muddled.
> 
> Maybe more to the point, I am unsure of the effect that it would have
> for people wanting to borrow or contribute code.  If it's pure GPL the
> terms are understood, but would the extra clause need to carry over to
> other applications borrowing code from Muine?  Also how would it impact
> the inclusion of other GPL code into Muine, since it would make an
> allowance not necessarily permitted by the other author?
> 
> I think the GStreamer folks have been trying to talk through some of
> these issues with the FSF.  They recommend the LGPL, I suppose somewhat
> for the sake of simplicity.  The more I think about it the more I think
> I agree with them.  The only situation I can see much of a difference in
> is for Muine (not GStreamer) plugins.  With the exemption Muine plugins
> would still be subject to the GPL, though under the LGPL people could
> write non-free plugins.  
> 
> So after tossing around some ideas there, I guess I'd have to say that I
> like the idea of the LGPL.  Then Muine could clearly be linked against
> non-free GStreamer plugins, but without adding confusion to the
> licensing.

Very good points, hadn't thought of those... well, it indeed seems the
LGPL is the best option then.


Jorn