[Mono-dev] Licensing [WAS: Cross-platform command-lines]

[Mirco Bauer]

On Wed, 2007-08-08 at 09:45 -0700, Charlie Poole wrote:
> > Binary bundling is an issue, as nobody can tell what source 
> > was used to build it, that is especially a problem for 
> > opensource development and Linux distributions that care 
> > about source (like Debian).
> 
> Believe me, I know. There have been a few apps that used some of 
> the NUnit code, modifying it and redistributing the assemblies
> sometimes even with indistinguishable version numbers. That's 
> one reason I'm thinking of licensing changes, BTW.

The GPL/LGPL license protects your source code from some things like
this. AFAIK there are no other licenses with more strictness regarding
source code distribution/usage than the (L)GPL while still being free
software, except non-free/non-opensource licenses. Whatever you change
to, please use an OSI approved licenses [0] or at least DSFG [1]
complaint licenses (like the Shared Source lincenses from MS are not OSI
approved (yet) but still some are DFSG complaint)

> 
> OTOH, not having a binary package is an issue for some users
> who are not oriented toward open source. For example, I have
> a lot of NUnit users, working for a certain large software 
> company here in the NorthWest, who are not permitted to download 
> our source. :-(

Not permitted as in "by company policy"? IMHO using source is not more
or less secure (in licensing terms/conditions) than using binaries.

[0] http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical
[1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

-- 
Regards,

Mirco 'meebey' Bauer

PGP-Key ID: 0xEEF946C8

FOSS Developer    meebey at meebey.net  http://www.meebey.net/
PEAR Developer    meebey at php.net     http://pear.php.net/
Debian Developer  meebey at debian.org  http://www.debian.org/
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