Licenses (was: Re: Tomcat Logging)

[Jon Stevens <jo...@latchkey.com>]

on 8/22/2000 7:31 AM, "Ceki Gulcu" <cg...@zurich.ibm.com> wrote:

> As far as I can tell (and read), it has no sleazy clauses
> unfairly advantaging IBM. The IPL grants anyone, including
> ASF, the right to modify and distribute the code for free or
> for a fee. What else could one hope for?

Wow. This statement really pisses me off to no end.

Let me quote how the IBM license completely sucks in my opinion:

> Each Contributor must include the following in a conspicuous
> location in the Program:
> 
> Copyright © {date here}, International Business Machines
> Corporation and others. All Rights Reserved.

Sure I can use the code for free, but what happens if I use the code and I
want to add a feature to it for my application that I want included into the
main branch?

No way am I going to give the copyright on my code over to IBM. I'm not
working for IBM for free which is what this license forces me to do.

I would much rather work for a nice non-profit like the ASF for free than I
would like to do so for some gigantic corporation.

Yes, this may be a subtle point for some people, but I really have a hard
time considering myself working for free even though I'm giving my code away
for free. I understand that sure, IBM could take my ASF code and sell it or
do whatever they want to do with it, but they would never "own" it. You work
for IBM already so your view on this license is skewed and you don't see how
others who don't work for IBM would view this issue.

The lawyers at IBM completely missed the clue train on this one. So, to
answer your question: "What else could one hope for?"....the answer is the
ASF license. So, please dump that silly license and release your code under
a BSD-ish license.

thanks,

-jon stevens