perl modules licenses

[Radoslaw Zielinski]

Andrzej Krzysztofowicz <ankry at green.mif.pg.gda.pl> [29-08-2003 16:34]:
> Radoslaw Zielinski wrote:
>> Andrzej Krzysztofowicz <ankry at green.mif.pg.gda.pl> [29-08-2003 08:39]:
[...]
>>> If perl license in distribution changes, the module licenses changes also.
>>> So - my macro proposition: it could just extract the license from the perl
>>> package.
>> I don't like it.  Main reasons:
>> 1. This is an interpretation of this unclear statement.  IMHO, we should
>>    keep away from it.  Inconvenient?  Who cares.  We're not supposed to
>>    resolve legal problems for users.
> What is unclear in this statement ?

And why are we having this conversation?  But see at the bottom.

>> 2. We lose information, which could possibly be of use for those, who
>>    would like to distribute PLD packages and drop the ones with weird
>>    licenses.
>> 3. It's an unnecessary technical complication.
> So what do you think about a statement like:
> "same as perl (GPL v2+ or Artistic)"

False. ;-)

If s/2/1/ (which compresses to s/ v1\+//) -- redundant.  But fine as
a compromise.

[...]
> BTW: some packages has licenses like "same as <another perl module>".
> Do we really need the string of dependencies in the informational field ???

If an author wants it?  Why not?  What harm will it do?

[...]
>>> Can perl license change to be non-GPL compliant ?
>> Hard to say.  Can it be changed at all?
> If it can't I see no problem at all.

I don't know if can't; again: IANAL.  Just suspect, that such change
would be very hard to carry through -- probably every contributor would
have to agree on it.

Example problems to feed your paranoia:
* What if other interpreter will be written?  (There is ActiveState for
  Win32, but I don't know about its status (a separate program or just
  a port) or license.)
* Can I write a program, call it perl and claim, that these modules are
  under its license?  Why not?
* What does "Perl" in "same as Perl" mean?  Formally (as stated at some
  place I can't find right now), "Perl" is the language, as opposite to
  "perl" the interpreter.  Does a language have a license?

-- 
Radosław Zieliński <radek at karnet.pl>
[ GPG key: http://radek.karnet.pl/ ]

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