From: Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@...>
Date: 2005-11-08T16:19:56+09:00
Subject: Re: which open source licence?

On 11/8/05, petermichaux@yahoo.com <petermichaux@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think I've seen an open source licence that requires any
> modifications/improvements to be reported back to the original project.
> Anyone here know if that licence really exists?

I believe there is a license like this but it really goes against what
open source 'should' be about.  This would make your software
non-free, and thus would be incompatible with the GPL and several
other licenses.

> Is there a good, brief summary comparison of the main open source
> licenses? I've looked around and the comparisons are either simpleton
> or just lists of way to many licenses.

This is a list of licenses here:

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html#SoftwareLicenses

The Ruby community has a strong leaning towards the BSD/MIT licenses
which are Free Software licenses that are GPL compatible but not
copylefted (meaning they are less restrictive than the GPL).

However, a decent compromise is the license of Ruby itself, which
allows people to choose whether or not they want to copyleft their
derivative works.

I personally am an advocate of the GNU General Public License.  
However, the GPL can be very complex and also be too restrictive for
some peoples needs  (though it is designed to be this way to prevent
the exploitation of free software) .

However, I will certainly save my GPL rants because they tend to
explode into flame wars on here.

Please do consider making your software GPL compatible (there are MANY
licenses to choose from), also think about the audience ( a lot of
Ruby guys like MIT/BSD licenses) and finally consider the type of
protection you want.  (If copyleft appeals to you, the GPL is
strongest for this).

If in doubt,  go with the license of Ruby.  It's a bit of a confusing
setup but it should keep everyone at least halfway happy. :)

If you want my full GPL story, feel free to contact me off list.  I
respect those who do not approve of the GPL in it's entirety, so I
won't flame on about it here.