Re: [Libreoffice] [tdf-discuss] Re: Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice

On Jun 5, 2011, at 11:01 AM, Simon Phipps wrote:
> The plain fact is that Apache's rules do not allow any section of Apache-maintained code to be 
> licensed under copyleft licenses. That means that groups of people who have made the the equally 
> valid choice to have their work licensed under LGPL will be unable to collaborate within the 
> Apache community. As a consequence, any part of the OOo/LO codebase whose locus of development 
> moves to Apache cannot be co-developed by people preferring copyleft licensing.
>
> The folk who choose non-copyleft licensing simply won't be welcome at Apache. While the folk who 
> choose only Apache licensing will be welcome at LibreOffice (since their Apache-licensed 
> contributions can readily be used in the LibreOffice code), they will probably not be content 
> with a work-product that's not Apache licensed.
>
> Given these plain facts, I believe it is inevitable that there will be two projects. As such, I 
> think it's important to get started on the "rules of engagement" for productive co-operation 
> rather than endlessly arguing about licensing or the "possibility" that every developer with 
> existing preferences will spontaneously change them.

Personally, I don't think it's "inevitable" at all, nor do I
think it the place for people to make such statements on behalf
of communities that they have, as far as I know, only limited associations
with.

If we want to turn this discussion into an ideological debate about
copyleft and non-copyleft, then I think it's a mistake. But just
recall that even the FSF admits that AL2.0 is the best license
where free/open standards are competing with non-free/proprietary
ones.

(PS: True, people who choose "only" copyleft won't be "welcome" at
the ASF (they would be welcome, really, it's just that the ASF
just does AL2... it's just an environment in which they might
feel as outsiders), but neither would those people who choose
"only" non-copyleft feel welcome at TDF... I think most people
are true pragmatics and choose the best license for the job at
hand.)