OVPL and open ownership

Chris Zumbrunn chris at czv.com
Tue Jul 26 14:43:21 UTC 2005


On Jul 26, 2005, at 4:31 PM, Alex Bligh wrote:

> --On 26 July 2005 14:53 +0200 Chris Zumbrunn <chris at czv.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, but the original code contributed by the ID would not be granted 
>> to
>> other contributors under the same terms as they are asked to 
>> contribute
>> their modifications. That discriminates against all other 
>> contributors.
>
> Correct - there is still some asymmetry - if it wasn't for the 
> requirement
> of asymmetry, I would be using an existing license!

I know ;-)

>> Or looking at the same problem from another angle: The license must 
>> allow
>> modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed
>> under the same terms as the license of the original software. That's 
>> term
>> 3 of the OSD. If you tell contributors that they cannot distribute 
>> their
>> modifications under the same terms as the original contributor did 
>> with
>> the initial contribution then you are in violation of the OSD.
>
> They can distribute it under the same terms as the original software.
> The original s/w is distributed under the terms of the OVPL. Am I 
> missing
> something here?

If you require others to contribute their modifications under a 
BSD-style license then that's not the same terms that the original 
software was distributed under. And if the initial contributor asks 
that modifications by others must be licensed to him for use in 
proprietary versions but other contributors can't do the same then that 
means they cannot make their modifications available under the same 
terms that the initial contributor did.

Chris




More information about the License-discuss mailing list