[License-discuss] PHP License v3.01 comments

[Rick Moen]

1.  PHP License v.3.0, as archived at
http://opensource.org/licenses/PHP-3.0, is an OSI Approved[sm] licence.
A housekeeping note, in case it's of interest:  Recent PHP 4 and PHP 5
releases have been under PHP License v3.01.  A careful comparison finds
that the difference between 3.0 and 3.01 consists exactly of an update
of the URL http://www.php.net/ to http://www.php.net/software/ -- and no
other difference.


2.  I lurk on the Debian Project's debian-legal mailing list (for my
sins ;->  ).  Last August, Ian Jackson of Debian, speaking for a group
of Debian developers including the ftpmasters, examined three
peculiarities of PHP License 3.01 (carried forward verbatim from 3.0)
and will be asking SFLC for advice on those peculiarities when the 
query has been finished and vetted by the Debian ftpmasters.  This
probably has no bearing on OSD compliance, but may be of interest
anyway.  Draft 4 (latest) of Jackson's queries are here:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/08/msg00062.html


All three of the issues will be familiar here.  The first is that the
licence is worded in a manner specific to the PHP product, i.e., not
templated.

Likewise (issue #2), because of the narrow focus of the drafters on the
PHP product, the licence disclaimer is wrongly worded when the PHP
Licence is used for any other codebase (including third-party add-ons to
PHP).

Last (issue #3), Debian points out practical problems and unintended
side-effects that are likely being caused by PHP Group's rather frenetic
attempt to ban (via licence terms 3 and 4) unauthorised use of the term
'PHP' by third parties.

(Jackson states in passing that PHP is not a trademark, which is almost
certainly a false statement on account of common-law trademark.)


I've seen no further comment since August, but the ftpmasters have
probably been preoccupied by the release process for Debian 'jessie'.

-- 
Cheers,                                 Atque memento, nulli adsunt Romanorum 
Rick Moen                               qui locutionem tuam corrigant.
rick at linuxmafia.com 
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