On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 12:06 AM Jilayne Lovejoy <jlovejoy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 1/4/22 9:27 AM, David Cantrell wrote: > > Does it follow that we [Fedora] take an open source project that is > > dual licensed and use the license that is acceptable in our project > > and redistribute under those terms? Is that even a thing one can do? > > Given the "or" usage, my assumption is yes. The author is giving the > > downstream user the choice of using that work under the terms of the > > GPL or the terms of the Artistic license. In the case of Fedora, > > we've deemed Artistic undesirable which means our use of the modules > > is technically under the terms of the GPL. > Correct. > > > > > For me, I would prefer to see this reflected in the License tags in > > spec files so we can see how we're integrating components in to > > Fedora. If we note a license that we can't use or that we are not > > using, it makes it harder to see at a glance _what_ terms actually > > apply to that component. And that makes it harder for other packagers > > looking for license-compatible dependencies. > Agreed. I sort of agree. > > I realize this is yet another work project and also that I may be > > incorrect regarding what we can and can't do with regard to > > dual-licensed projects. If we are unable to say "we're using the Perl > > modules under the terms of the GPL" and exclude the Artistic license, > > then really the "or" boolean doesn't apply and it's really always > > "and". > I think you mean that there would not be a need for the "OR" operator in > Fedora, but there are open source projects that may be licensed under a > choice of two "good" Fedora licenses, in which case, it would make sense > to simply pass downstream the choice of both, I would think. The only reason why "GPL+ or Artistic" (or, presumably in SPDX notation, "GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0") shouldn't be used by Fedora is that Artistic-1.0 is "bad" from Fedora's perspective and Fedora has a policy of not distributing code in packages under "bad" licenses. Or else we should revisit that classification of Artistic-1.0, or else document that there is a special exception for Perl modules because Perl module developers upstream objected to the use of merely 'GPL" in the spec file license tag. (I don't really like that last possibility.) Otherwise, if the disjunctive license expression involves two licenses Fedora considers "good", then I agree with Jilayne, the choice should be passed on -- even if there is some argument that it *can't* be (which would mainly be for license compatibility reasons, I guess). That has in fact been the practice in Fedora, and in all the projects and products developed by Red Hat that I'm aware of. At Red Hat we've even explained this to the occasional customer who asks us which license of a FOSS-dual-licensed package, or file, we are shipping under. I am aware anecdotally that there are other companies that do the opposite: they are careful to somehow ceremonially or otherwise "pick" one of the licenses in the disjunct. It is important to note that this is *not* what is done upstream, i.e. by upstream projects using other projects' FOSS code, except in extremely rare cases, and I see Fedora, as well as Red Hat, as perpetuating that general upstream FOSS community practice of passing on FOSS license choices without further analysis. One reason for this is that it's generally never clear which of the licenses ought to be selected or would be preferable, if one had to make a choice. The result is more complex license identifier expressions in package metadata, but I think there the complexity is justified. What it actually *means* for an intermediary to distribute upstream code under the upstream choice of licenses, with conditions that might simultaneously apply to that intermediary on either side of the disjunct, I'm not entirely sure, but in all normal practical scenarios it never really matters -- which is another reason for the "pass the choice on" practice. I'd rather copy the practices of upstream community projects than the practices of GPL-phobic companies downstream, basically. Richard _______________________________________________ legal mailing list -- legal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to legal-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/legal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure
