Wine license change

[Steve Langasek]

On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 07:08:39PM -0800, Daniel Walker wrote:

> > When Alexandre last brought up this issue, he was very disappointed.
> > He felt that there was not enough support from the 'silent majority'
> > of Wine developers for a license change.  His overriding lament to me
> > was 'No one cares'.  He further felt that since a small number of
> > major Wine contributors objected, that it was not appropriate to
> > change the license.
> > 
> > I would like to ask for a more formal process.  I would like each and
> > every contributor to Wine to send Alexandre a private email with an
> > 'Agree' or 'Disagree' opinion, so that he can more truly assess what
> > the contributors to Wine really want.  The specific question I wish to
> > pose is as follows:

> 	This is ridicules.. If you have something to say then post it to this
> group. Private emails to Alexandre aren't going to stimulate meaningful
> conversation.

I don't think anything in Jeremy's message suggested that conversation was 
a requirement.  He's looking for feedback to get an idea of how members of 
the Wine community feel.  But if you're open to being persuaded that the 
LGPL would be a Good Thing for the Wine community, I can try to oblige 
you.

> > Finally, in closing, I wanted to summarize our position.  We plan to
> > release our future work under an xGPL style license, and we would like
> > the rest of the Wine community to join us.  If the bulk of the
> > community wants to stick with the current license, then we will
> > probably end up making a separate CVS development tree.  Anyone would
> > be free to use our work from that tree, under the xGPL-style license
> > terms the FSF's lawyers recommend.

> 	So lets get this straight, if no one wants to change to the LGPL you'll
> fork the code? 
> I don't have anything necessarily against the LGPL, but your email
> sounds all wrong.

One thing to bear in mind is that others already ARE forking the Wine 
code.  Given the nature of their work, Codeweavers must maintain a 
separate CVS tree locally; although we're fortunate in that their fork is 
open to backporting to the official tree.  Other companies are forking 
with no intention to contribute back (see Lindows.com); still others 
(Transgaming) have made reintegration of their work contingent on turning 
an profit.[1]  Jeremy is at least being courteous enough to let us know 
where /his/ company is going with the Wine code, and is inviting the rest 
of the Wine community to come along with him.

Cheers,
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

[1] I'm not judging here, just using them for illustrative purposes; I was 
among those who signed off on the current Wine license, and I recognize 
that the Wine license allows such uses.