Wine license change: it's about time!

Dan Kegel dank at kegel.com
Thu Feb 7 00:40:51 CST 2002


Jeremy White wrote:
> ...
> However, with some recent events I cannot disclose, it is clear to me
> that the opportunity for Wine to be used in a proprietary product is
> too tempting and has caused some harm to the Wine project.  Based on
> experience, I feel strongly that the potential for harm is great
> enough that CodeWeavers needs to take two actions. First, we would
> like to release all new code we develop under an LGPL style license.
> Second, I would like to open another call for a license change and
> thereby strongly add my voice to Alexandre's.
> 
> Thus, I would like to call for a change in the Wine license.  I think
> we all agreed that the LGPL formed the basis for a good 'alternate'
> license strategy.  Eben Moglen, the counsel for the FSF, has kindly
> offered to help review licensing strategies for Wine.  The goal is to
> attempt to secure some form of Copyleft protection for Wine while
> still permitting proprietary software to link and bind with Wine. 
> ...
> 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.

It's about time.  Putting Wine under the xGPL is the best way
I can think of to ensure its future.  The xGPL makes it possible
for competitors to cooperate for their common good - which is pretty amazing.
As Bob Young said at the formation of the Gnome Foundation 
(http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,s2080853,00.html):
"There's been a fundamental problem of getting industry consortium to work
 together... But we don't have a single corporate lawyer in the room. 
 We haven't signed a single licence
 among any of us... With the GPL, we have eliminated the need for trust."
See also http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/random-bits/2001-June/000589.html

- Dan





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