Question on Dual-Licensing Some Code for Phobos
Walter Bright
newshound2 at digitalmars.com
Fri Dec 1 22:49:44 UTC 2017
On 11/30/2017 11:17 AM, Jack Stouffer wrote:
> I'm starting work on a proposal for stdx.decimal, and one of the clearest
> implementations to work off of is the Python implementation.
>
> This however, poses a problem because Python's source is under the PSFL, a
> BSD-like permissive license. Any derivative work, such as a D conversion, must
> have the original copyright notice, a copy of the PSFL, as a well as a summary
> of changes. This is simple enough to do, but the resulting code would be
> dual-licensed with the PSFL and the BSL 1.0 (dual-licensing being relatively
> common in other OSS projects).
>
> My question is there any reason this could pose a problem? Could this interfere
> with something like distribution or company adoption?
>
> Also note, one of the existing Phobos modules, std.net.isemail, is supposed to
> be dual-licensed because it's derived from an existing BSD work. But, it's
> missing the BSD license from the top (and is technically breaking the license
> because of that).
You cannot add/change the license of software without permission from the
copyright holder. Translating the code from one language to another does not
erase the copyright - it's still a derived work.
If the license is incompatible with Phobos, i.e. as free as Boost is, then such
a derived work cannot be a part of Phobos.
It can always be a separate library, though.
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