[License-review] Request for Legacy Approval of PHP License 3.01

Fri May 8 21:01:22 UTC 2020

To the Board of the OSI and the License-Review list:

Below is the recommendation of the License Committee of the Open Source
Initiative on The PHP License, version 3.01. The Board will discuss and
take action on the recommendation at its next Board meeting.

Pamela Chestek
Chair, License Review Committee
Open Source Initiative

****

License: The PHP License, version 3.01 (Exhibit A)
Submitted: 4 March 2020,
http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2020-March/004716.html
Decision date: due no later than the first Board meeting after 3 May 2020

License Review Committee Recommendation:

/Resolved that it is the opinion of the OSI that the The PHP License,
version 3.01 be approved as an Open Source Initiative Approved License
in the Non-Reusable Licenses category of licenses. The OSI-Approved PHP
License version 3.00 shall be moved to the “superseded” category of
licenses./

_Rationale Document_

Notes:

This license is identical to OSI-approved version 3.0 of the license
except for two minor changes:

- "This product includes PHP, freely available from <http://www.php.net/>".
+ "This product includes PHP software, freely available from
<http://www.php.net/software/>".

- “This product includes the Zend Engine, freely available at
<http://www.zend.com>.”
+ “PHP includes the Zend Engine, freely available at <http://www.zend.com>.”

The license has been in use for 14 years.

There was discussion of the fact that the license has the trademark
“PHP” hard-coded in it, which would impose restrictions on the use of
the PHP trademark even where a project adopting this license has not
used “PHP” for its own name. There was consensus that this theoretical
possibility is not sufficiently troubling to deny approval of the
license, particularly where a virtually identical version of the license
was approved in the past.

_Exhibit A_

--------------------------------------------------------------------
                  The PHP License, version 3.01
Copyright (c) 1999 - 2019 The PHP Group. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, is permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
     the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
     distribution.

  3. The name "PHP" must not be used to endorse or promote products
     derived from this software without prior written permission. For
     written permission, please contact group at php.net.

  4. Products derived from this software may not be called "PHP", nor
     may "PHP" appear in their name, without prior written permission
     from group at php.net.  You may indicate that your software works in
     conjunction with PHP by saying "Foo for PHP" instead of calling
     it "PHP Foo" or "phpfoo"

  5. The PHP Group may publish revised and/or new versions of the
     license from time to time. Each version will be given a
     distinguishing version number.
     Once covered code has been published under a particular version
     of the license, you may always continue to use it under the terms
     of that version. You may also choose to use such covered code
     under the terms of any subsequent version of the license
     published by the PHP Group. No one other than the PHP Group has
     the right to modify the terms applicable to covered code created
     under this License.

  6. Redistributions of any form whatsoever must retain the following
     acknowledgment:
     "This product includes PHP software, freely available from
     <http://www.php.net/software/>".

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE PHP DEVELOPMENT TEAM ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PHP
DEVELOPMENT TEAM OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
individuals on behalf of the PHP Group.

The PHP Group can be contacted via Email at group at php.net.

For more information on the PHP Group and the PHP project,
please see <http://www.php.net>.

On 3/4/2020 1:58 PM, Ben Ramsey wrote:
> Rationale:
>
> According to the commit history[1] for its LICENSE file, the PHP
> License 3.0 was published on July 21, 2002. I've been unable to find
> any historical discussions related to the approval of the PHP License
> by the OSI, but the license has been listed on the OSI website as an
> approved license since at least 2006[2][3].
>
> On January 1, 2006, a slight modification was made to the PHP License
> for clarification[4]. As a result of this change, the license number
> was bumped to 3.01 and has remained at this version number ever since.
>
> The 3.01 version, however, was never added to the OSI list of approved
> licenses, and this causes a problem for some organizations who mandate
> the use of software with OSI-approved licenses.
>
> A recent post[5] to the PHP General mailing list raised this issue:
>
>> My team’s ability to use the phpdbg utility hinges on OSI approval of
>> its license. Language at https://www.php.net/license/ indicates that
>> the PHP 3.01 license is OSI approved, but OSI disagrees;
>> https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical shows approval only of
>> the PHP 3.0 license. (The fact that 3.0 and 3.01 are substantively
>> identical is no use to us at all.)
> I am submitting this formal request for review on behalf of the PHP
> internals[6][7].
>
>
> Proliferation category:
>
> Non-reusable licenses
>
> This is the category under which the current PHP License 3.0 falls, as
> an OSI-approved license.
>
>
> Please find attached the full text of the PHP License 3.01. It is also
> available at https://www.php.net/license/3_01.txt
>
>
>
> [1]: https://github.com/php/php-src/commits/master/LICENSE
> [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20060407033057/http://www.opensource.org/licenses/php.php
> [3]: https://opensource.org/licenses/PHP-3.0
> [4]: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/56567d31b331d3ab7814b36867579116eb14da86
> [5]: https://news-web.php.net/php.general/327010
> [6]: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/108847
> [7]: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/108848
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> License-review at lists.opensource.org
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-review_lists.opensource.org

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