LGPL clarification

[Bryan George]

Naturally, I thought about the CVW license, but since the alternatives
are the MPL, which FSF specifically doesn't like, and GPL, which
precludes binary distribution sans code under any circumstances, it
doesn't quite hit the spot.

I'm beginning to settle in on the notion of invoking GPL + special
dispensation for linked executables, plus maybe CVW-like government
contract rights (is that necessary if the license if GPL-derived?). 
Have I proposed any gotchas as far as OSI is concerned?  I can't imagine
FSF barking too loudly, since they have similar licenses for Guile,
etc..

Thanks for the lively discussion - very enlightening!

Bryan

Frank Hecker wrote:
> 
> Bryan George wrote:
> > MITRE (and similar organizations) regularly develop infrastructure
> > libraries that we would like to see used in both non-commercial and
> > commercial contexts, and that we would like to be considered standards,
> > de facto or otherwise.  For these reasons, I have taken a very keen
> > interest in OSS licensing in general, and the LGPL in particular.
> 
> Incidentally, you may be aware of this already, but Mitre has already
> created its own open source license, for use with the publicly released
> version of the Collaborative Virtual Workspace (CVW) software:
> 
> http://cvw.mitre.org/cvw/licenses/source/license.html
> 
> The Mitre CVW license agreement is basically a dual license scheme
> involving the GPL and the Mozilla Public License, plus some
> Mitre-specific language relating to the fact that the software was
> developed under US government contract, plus a provision for copyright
> assignment of changes sent back to Mitre.
> 
> You couldn't use the Mitre CVW license as is, because it is specific to
> CVW; also, to be up to date the license should refer to version 1.1 of
> the MPL, not version 1.0.  However with changes it might be suitable for
> your purposes; as an MPL/GPL dual license scheme it has similar features
> to those Karsten Self mentioned in connection with his proposed GPL/BSD
> dual license scheme.  Plus the Mitre CVW license has been certified as
> OSI-compliant, and also has been reviewed and approved by Mitre
> management and legal counsel, so I suspect a variant of it would be able
> to get similar approval relatively easily.
> 
> Frank
> --
> Frank Hecker            work: http://www.collab.net/
> frank at collab.net        home: http://www.hecker.org/

-- 
Dr. Bryan George                     Phone: +1 (703) 883-5458
Lead Signal Processing Engineer      FAX:   +1 (703) 883-6708
The MITRE Corporation                Email: bgeorge at mitre.org
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