[kde-community] licence policy updates

[Michael Pyne]

On Fri, February 14, 2014 20:34:51 Albert Astals Cid wrote:
> El Divendres, 14 de febrer de 2014, a les 10:31:24, Jonathan Riddell va
> 
> escriure:
> > I've made some proposed changes to the KDE Licensing Policy
> > 
> > http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy/Draft
> > 
> > Most significant is the inclusion of GPL 3+ as an option in response
> > to a request by GCompris and a desire voiced by a few people not to
> > treat it as an exception.
> > 
> > Our current policy is designed to allow maxium code reuse around KDE
> > and beyond, allowing GPL 3+ would mean some code could not be reused
> > in GPL 2+ code without a relicence, but as pointed out this problem
> > already happens when moving GPL 2 code to platform.  The policy has
> > nothing to do with whether GPL 2 or 3 is more or less commercially
> > acceptable.  Given a blank sheet I'd pick GPL 3 every time as it
> > prevents DRM lock-in and patent abuse.
> > 
> > Changes...
> > 
> > #* '''GPL''' version 3 or later, where a KDE repository uses this it must
> > be clearly marked by adding the full licence in a file called
> > COPYING.GPL3 in the top directory of the repository ...and add GPL 3
> > headers
> 
> Do you guys think that it would make sense to explicitely suggest that
> applications use the "GPL version 2 or version 3 or later versions approved
> by the membership of KDE e.V. " variant unless they really have special
> needs in aim to improve inter-app code shareability?

That makes sense.

In fact it would probably be a good idea to develop a "How to Pick a License" 
guide to help inform developers on *why* they'd pick a license, in addition to 
this document informing developers on *what* is appropriate to choose.

This doesn't need to be directive policy of course, but presumably there is 
some type of license structure that we as a project would generally prefer for 
our developers to choose, all things being equal. The big thing I worry about 
is that figuring out what we thing would turn into a giant bikeshed discussion 
and I doubt any of us have time for that. :P

Perhaps something similar exists online as well.

Regards,
 - Michael Pyne