[License-discuss] Updating the PHP license

[Ben Ramsey]

I wanted to follow up to let this list know that I took your advice and formally retained legal counsel, after which I opened discussion regarding the RFC on the PHP internals mailing list on July 10, 2025 (see https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/127984). I’ve obtained consent/approval from all members of the PHP Group and Zend/Perforce, and I’m finally ready to bring the RFC to a vote with the community, which should open on, or shortly after, March 13.

Thanks so much for your earlier replies and advice. If you have any feedback or concerns feel free to message me directly or respond on the PHP internals mailing list.

Cheers,
Ben


> On May 25, 2024, at 12:16, Bruce Perens via License-discuss <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org> wrote:
> 
> We are not your lawyer, and you really should have one. Everything you get from this mailing list falls short of legal advice. Many of us are not admitted to the bar, and even the ones who are are not contracted to advise you.
> 
> That said, it looks to me like you are within clause 5, but in your place I would do one more thing: ask for any of the existing developers who object to the new licensing to make that known, publishing that request widely. For everyone who does object, write their code out of the product. Wait a little while for further objection, and then publish the product with the new license.
> 
> That gives you a little more protection against people who might somehow have the desire to litigate around the license change. 
> 
> You should show this to your lawyer before you act on it.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, May 25, 2024, 10:06 Ben Ramsey <ben at benramsey.com <mailto:ben at benramsey.com>> wrote:
>> > On May 18, 2024, at 19:21, Ben Ramsey <ben at benramsey.com <mailto: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

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