You are viewing a plain text version of this content. The canonical link for it is here.
Posted to c-dev@xerces.apache.org by Matt England <me...@mengland.net> on 2006/05/22 15:51:05 UTC
Could Xerces-C offer my project a GPL license?
I am a project leader for a dual-licensed, open-source project. One
license being a GPL-based license; the other a commercial
license. References to our project:
http://www.cleversafe.org
We currently use Xerces-C/C++ for our XML interfacing/control. However,
the Xerces Apache license is not as compatible with our GPL license as we
would like it to be. Among other things, we can not distribute Xerces
source in our source tarballs so that our users can build a complete
Cleversafe system from source.
Could Xerces possibly offer an additional, GPL license to their distribution?
Note that if the Xerces project owns the copyright to the Xerces code then
it's my understanding that Xerces could legally offer an *additional* (and
not a replacement) GPL license to their code if the project (and the
project leaders) chose to do so.
Alas, the Apache project may have some say about this. I'm not sure of the
general Apache policies in this area.
Further, I want to make clear this is only a request and not a demand. We
will perfectly understand if Xerces is unable to grant this request.
In any case, we (Cleversafe) thank the Xerces project for providing such a
useful product to the community.
Thanks for any help,
-Matt
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org
Re: Could Xerces-C offer my project a GPL license?
Posted by Matt England <me...@mengland.net>.
At 5/22/2006 11:15 AM, Gareth Reakes wrote:
>You in correct in thinking that Apache could offer a different license,
>but we have our license for lots of reasons. My understanding is that we
>would not offer a GPL license. That is not to say that we don't strive to
>make the licenses compatible. I hope that the licenses are compatible in
>the future so that GPL software guys can use Apache without worrying.
For what it's worth, it's my understanding Apache licenses (through rev
2.0) are not compatible with the GNU GPL, as per:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses
Hence Xerces is a problem with our GPL project. As mentioned previously,
we would prefer to not make a Xerces-based exception to our GPL offering.
If the above is true, then GPL projects can not legally embed Apache-based
software in their distributions.
>Did you have a chance to go onto the legal-discuss list? The guys there
>know much more about this and may be able to suggest other options?
I did not know such a thing exists; thanks for the reference. I assume
this is the correct place:
http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/www-legal-discuss/
I will address the above list with this matter.
Thanks again,
-Matt
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org
Re: Could Xerces-C offer my project a GPL license?
Posted by Gareth Reakes <ga...@embracemobile.com>.
Hey Matt,
Matt England wrote:
> To be clear, we do not seek a change from the Apache license. We would
> like to see the Xerces group keep the Apache license as is.
>
> The proposal is to offer an *additional* license, that license being
> GPL, at least for the Cleversafe ( http://www.cleversafe.org ) project.
> The copyright owner(s) has every legal right to offer their source code
> under many licenses at once, and it's a common practice to do so (eg,
> see Mozilla's NSS project, which offers both Mozilla and GPL, among
> possibly others).
>
> Assuming Xerces can or will not do this, we may seek some other
> alternatives besides Xerces.
You in correct in thinking that Apache could offer a different license,
but we have our license for lots of reasons. My understanding is that we
would not offer a GPL license. That is not to say that we don't strive
to make the licenses compatible. I hope that the licenses are compatible
in the future so that GPL software guys can use Apache without worrying.
Did you have a chance to go onto the legal-discuss list? The guys there
know much more about this and may be able to suggest other options?
Cheers,
Gareth
--
Gareth Reakes, Managing Director Embrace Mobile
+44-1865-811197 http://www.embracemobile.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org
Re: Could Xerces-C offer my project a GPL license?
Posted by Matt England <me...@mengland.net>.
Hi Gareth,
At 5/22/2006 08:57 AM, Gareth Reakes wrote:
> You might want to search the archives as a similar request has
> recently been posted. We can't change Apache license, but there was a
> solution presented where you could put an explicit exception for Xerces in.
Thanks for the tip on the archives search--that past request may have come
from me, but the conversation got a little muddled why we sought a
short-term solution. Unfortunately, we do not wish to divert from a pure
GPL license, and therefore we are not inclined to include an exception for
Xerces.
To be clear, we do not seek a change from the Apache license. We would
like to see the Xerces group keep the Apache license as is.
The proposal is to offer an *additional* license, that license being GPL,
at least for the Cleversafe ( http://www.cleversafe.org ) project. The
copyright owner(s) has every legal right to offer their source code under
many licenses at once, and it's a common practice to do so (eg, see
Mozilla's NSS project, which offers both Mozilla and GPL, among possibly
others).
Assuming Xerces can or will not do this, we may seek some other
alternatives besides Xerces.
Thanks again, and best regards,
-Matt
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org
Re: Could Xerces-C offer my project a GPL license?
Posted by Gareth Reakes <ga...@embracemobile.com>.
Hey Matt,
You might want to search the archives as a similar request has recently
been posted. We can't change Apache license, but there was a solution
presented where you could put an explicit exception for Xerces in.
Cheers,
Gareth
Matt England wrote:
> I am a project leader for a dual-licensed, open-source project. One
> license being a GPL-based license; the other a commercial license.
> References to our project:
>
> http://www.cleversafe.org
>
> We currently use Xerces-C/C++ for our XML interfacing/control. However,
> the Xerces Apache license is not as compatible with our GPL license as
> we would like it to be. Among other things, we can not distribute
> Xerces source in our source tarballs so that our users can build a
> complete Cleversafe system from source.
>
> Could Xerces possibly offer an additional, GPL license to their
> distribution?
>
> Note that if the Xerces project owns the copyright to the Xerces code
> then it's my understanding that Xerces could legally offer an
> *additional* (and not a replacement) GPL license to their code if the
> project (and the project leaders) chose to do so.
>
> Alas, the Apache project may have some say about this. I'm not sure of
> the general Apache policies in this area.
>
> Further, I want to make clear this is only a request and not a demand.
> We will perfectly understand if Xerces is unable to grant this request.
>
> In any case, we (Cleversafe) thank the Xerces project for providing such
> a useful product to the community.
>
> Thanks for any help,
> -Matt
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org
>
>
--
Gareth Reakes, Managing Director Embrace Mobile
+44-1865-811197 http://www.embracemobile.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: c-dev-unsubscribe@xerces.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: c-dev-help@xerces.apache.org