Appropriate licenses for web libraries

Pimm Hogeling pimmhogeling at gmail.com
Tue Mar 9 12:13:12 UTC 2010


Hello all,

we're currently looking for a new license for some libraries. Here is the
situation:

We use a language called haXe. The official compiler can compile the haXe
code to different targets including SWF files (binaries that run in Flash
Player), JavaScript files (which are both binaries and source files) and
CPP/C++ files (which are obviously source files). The compiler comes bundled
with some core libraries, which (at least partially) get included into any
output. Additionally, there are a couple of libraries that the developer can
choose to use, which then also get included into the output.

Those libraries are currently licensed under the two-clause BSD license.
That license requires any copy of such library, either in source or binary
form, to be accompanied by the license itself and the copyright notice, and
some developers within our community have argued that that is too
restrictive. Complying with the license is easy for traditional software, as
one could include a copying file in the distribution or a small text note in
the documentation. But for web software, say SWF files, it is harder. One
will have to put such a file on the server and provide a link to it, for
example.

The community has decided that it wants to relicense the libraries under a
license that does not obligate a licensee to accompany binaries by the
license, a copyright notice or a disclaimer. Is that possible? Is there a
license that does this?

I'm not looking for legal advice, rather I would like to hear your thoughts
on this.

Thanks in advance,

Pimm Hogeling
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