Re: [DOC-LICENSE] OPL licensing terms

On Dec 11, 2007, at 3:56 PM, Tim Jackson wrote:

> Nuno Lopes wrote:
>
>> I really can't see why the OPL license makes it impossible to include
>> the PHP manual in fedora.. Can you please enlight me? (and please  
>> don't
>> use arguments such as FSF doesn't like the license..).
>
> The OPL license doesn't. The additional, optional parts of the OPL
> license that prevent distribution of modifications do, because  
> Fedora as
> a fundamental policy is a distribution that includes only items that
> don't restrict users' freedom to use, modify and distribute it (e.g.
> creating derivative distributions etc.). See
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview for more info.

I can't yet speak specifically to how this all relates to Fedora but  
we've been slowly thinking about our license. The current (OPL[1]) is  
defunct so we're looking for one that'll stick around and meet our  
needs. We've narrowed it down (through casual chat) to the following  
choices:

  GNU Free Documentation License:
    http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

  Creative Commons:
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  We'd revise it, but:
    http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-doc-license.html

  Other, or keep the current...

Overall I'd say we prefer things fairly open (in the spirit of open  
source) but of course want to remain fully compatible with the PHP  
license. I'm fairly ignorant on the topic of licensing but fwiw think  
it's great that Fedora and others include the PHP manual. All advice  
welcome!

Regards,
Philip

[1] http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/329