Re: Modification to the base XFree86 license

On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 01:31:39AM -0800, Nick Jacobs wrote:
> I hope XFree86 will reconsider the change to the
> XFree86 license which makes it incompatible with the
> GPL.
> 
> I like the GPL. Because of it, a huge quantity of
> software is effectively owned by the developer
> community, in a way that nobody can take it away from
> us. Most other licenses allow a powerful
> quasi-monopoly (today Microsoft, but in 10 years it
> could be some other corporation) to "embrace and
> extend" without giving modifications back to the
> community. If the extensions become a de facto
> standard, that effectively steals our work. There was
> a possibility that this would happen with Kerberos.
> Had it been licensed under GPL, that would have been
> much more difficult.
> 
> As far as XFree86 is concerned I'm just a user, but
> the user community has a strong interest in software
> remaining free. Making anything incompatible with the
> GPL just seems like a bad idea. Please reconsider.

You come after the battle has been fought, please read the FAQ following :

  http://www.xfree86.org/legal/licenses.html

Basically, the new licence will be restricted to the server code, and
will in particular not touch the client-side libraries, so it should
have no effect on any GPLed client application.

The only problem would be if someone wants to reuse XFree86 code in a
GPLed app, but i think this is similar for someone wanting to reuse
GPLed code in a BSDed app, and you should get an agreement with said
codes author in this case.

Friendly,

Sven Luther