Which license to choose?

[John Cowan]

Kevin Hunter scripsit:

> For the code part, what Joe would eventually like is for users to be
> able to freely engage and modify his code, but he wants to ensure that
> they give back any updates, fixes, or enhancements they make.  

It's important to note that no open source license, including the GPL,
requires that downstream licensees pass their changes back to the licensor.
The OSD and the FSF both consider that too stiff a requirement, particularly
when the licensor may move or go out of business without warning, leaving the
licensee stranded.

What the licensee *is* required to do under the GPL is to pass the
modified source to anyone who received binaries from him.  If the licensee
doesn't make any kind of distribution, the GPL doesn't require him to
pass along his changes to anyone.

> I realize that the Apache License addresses this with it's 6th item
> "Trademarks".  But does that cover the case where folks should give back
> improvements to the database as well?  The database (schema AND data)
> and code are symbiotic creatures: without the other, each are fairly
> useless on their own.

That's unlikely to be true.  Open Source is about reuse in unexpected
ways.

-- 
John Cowan    cowan at ccil.org    http://ccil.org/~cowan
Half the lies they tell about me are true.
        --Tallulah Bankhead, American actress