[License-discuss] Updating the PHP license

[Ben Ramsey]

> On May 18, 2024, at 19:21, Ben Ramsey <ben at benramsey.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi, all!
> 
> Over the years, there have been a few discussions on this list
> regarding the PHP license. Other parts of the open source community
> (e.g., Debian) have had lengthy discussions and disagreements
> regarding the license, as well. The TL;DR sentiment of all these
> discussions amounts to: change the license to something
> well-understood and less problematic.
> 
> So, that’s what I’m proposing to do in a new RFC I’ve drafted for the
> PHP project: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/php_license_update
> 
> I’ve not opened this up for discussion within the PHP project yet,
> since I’m still collecting feedback, and that’s why I’m sharing it
> here. I’ve put a lot of work into presenting what I think is a sound
> and well-reasoned argument for this change, and I’m asking for
> feedback from this group regarding the method and theory I’m using to
> go about it.
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Cheers,
> Ben


Apologies for posting the same message to the mailing list multiple 
times. I had some difficulties posting to the list, but I think those 
have been sorted out (many thanks to Nick and Stefano for your help!).

There's a lot of history included in my proposal document, so I wanted 
to call attention to one section in particular I'd like your feedback on 
(in addition to the main "Proposal" section); that's the "RFC Impact" 
section, where I describe how this proposal could impact other software 
that uses the PHP License. Please let me know if what I've described 
here is a reasonable interpretation of the "upgrade clause" (clause 5) 
of the PHP License, version 3.01.

https://wiki.php.net/rfc/php_license_update#rfc_impact

Cheers,
Ben