[Gerald Combs <gerald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 22 Nov 2002, Ronnie Sahlberg wrote:

> Good list.
> 
> I would like to expand on it,
> I belive that in order to change the licence one would need to do something
> like:
> 
> 1) identify the goals.

How about:

  - Guarantee that Ethereal remains open source, and that the core remains
    GPLed.

  - Allow the inclusion of plugins released under approved licenses.
  
  - Allow linking to code released under approved licenses.
  
  - Prohibit binary-only plugins, either implicitly or explicitly.


> 2) produce a new licence with very clearly defined exceptions on what
> is allowed and what is not allowed.
> Get proper legal advise to verify that the new licence is actually
> enforceable adn does not contain
> loop-holes.  Well, one could argue that GPL has not been verified either but
> it is the best we have
> right now.

I'm not sure we need an entirely new license.  We may just need a clause
granting exceptions, similar to the the one described at:

    http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LinkingOverControlledInterface




> 3) with proper legal advise, analyze all risks with changing the licence
> according to 2), that is
> what loop-holes may be present.
> Do a proper risk analysis.
> Also analyse or provide information covering the risks that the ethereal
> developers take:
>  IF the license is changed in such a way that sometime down the road a
> loop-hole is found and abused
> WHO is liable to compensate the developers for their unpaid work or
> dissapointment IF such an extension is abused?
> Will someone be prepared to come out two years from now and say, sorry guys
> that the licence change
> we requested from you had this effect in case something bad happens?
> OK, GPL is risky in this regard as well but it is the best we have today.
> 
> 4) discuss the licence produced in 3).  Note, all work in steps 1 to 3 can
> be made completely off list.
> Present the result from 3) to the list and seek acceptance.
> If acceptance can not be acheived go back to 1)
>
> 5) Track down every single contributor to ethereal and get them to either
> agree or refuse the proposed change.
> For every single contributor that does not approve of the license an
> analysis must be made describing
> every single contribution by that contributor. (This includes also everyone
> that can not be reached or tracked, Copyright of a work does not just cease
> because you can not find the copyright holder)
> 
> 6) Replace every contribution from developers that has not approved the
> change.
> Or if this is too much work, go back to 1 and try again.
> 
> 7) finished.
> 
> 
> 
> 1 probably takes a little time.
> 2 and 3 probably costs a lot of money since legal advise is required.
> 3 contains an insurance that probably costs a lot of money if someone is to
> offer to be responsible to reimbruise all the developers if the licence
> change results in something bad.
> 4, can be discussed on the list.
> 5 and 6 will take a LOT of time and may require rewrites of large parts of
> ethereal.
> 
> 
> Who is going to cover the monetary costs? Especially 2 and 3 is probably
> going to be expensive.
> Who will take responsibility in case the new license is broken?
> Who will contribute the potentially significant rewrite in 5-6 ?
> 
> The answer to the three questions above is in my case : not I
> 
> 
> I think it is difficult enough at this point that it is not realistic to do
> a license change ever.
> 
> 
> I do NOT agree with the "consensus among the current developers" is enough
> to change the license.
> IANAL but I really do think that one can not have like a consensus vote to
> change someone elses copyright.
> Copyrights are valid until x years after an original authors death
> (estimated or confirmed?).
> I really dont think just because I can not get hold of the author of a
> certain work that I then can decide
> that his copyright and license can be changed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joerg Mayer"
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 11:27 AM
> Subject: [Ethereal-dev] License change for plugins: Next steps
> 
> 
> 1) Identify the goals
> 2) Write a proposed addendum to the License
> 3) Discuss it
> 4) goto 2)
> 5) Write to all the people in the AUTHORS file and ask for consent
>    (with some introdution as to the why)
> 
> Corrections, additions, some writeup of 1 and maybe 2 are encouraged.
> 
> 
> 
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