On Sun, 2008-02-24 at 03:49 -0500, Andrés Robinet wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Andrés Robinet [mailto:agrobinet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > > Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 3:41 AM > > To: 'Robert Cummings'; 'Tamer Higazi' > > Cc: php-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Subject: RE: Question about PHP Licence and it's future! > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Robert Cummings [mailto:robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > > > Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 2:40 AM > > > To: Tamer Higazi > > > Cc: php-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > Subject: Re: Question about PHP Licence and it's future! > > > > > > > > > On Sun, 2008-02-24 at 06:50 +0200, Tamer Higazi wrote: > > > > Hi! > > > > I have asked myself a question. After I saw, that SAP will no more > > > > release future Versions of their open source Database MaxDB under the > > > > GPL License, I have asked myself either if this could happen with PHP. > > > > > > > > Who owns PHP? Is it Zend Technologies or the PHP Group itself? "Who" is > > > > the PHP Group and what makes the PHP Group? > > > > > > > > Who guaranties that future Versions of PHP stays open source and are > > > > being released under the Terms of the General Public Licenses? > > > > > > > > Can future Versions from one day to the other no more being released > > > > under the GPL, only under a closed source license? Let us say, PHP > > would > > > > be distributed for several architectures only in binary forms and the > > > > PECL modules stay open source. > > > > > > > > These questions are for me very importand according to an commercial > > > > product which will be planed, designed, written and sold commercially. > > > > > > > > We are pendling between Ruby, Python and PHP5. Only the point "written" > > > > is unclear. > > > > > > It doesn't matter. The PHP code as it is has been released under the PHP > > > License. This means if the future versions were ever released under > > > another license that was exclusionary, then there is still the > > > opportunity to fork code released under the PHP license. Heck you can > > > fork the PHP project now if you felt you could get the ball rolling with > > > enough momentum for acceptance. If beleive the hardened PHP project is > > > considered a fork despite the fact it generally keeps full compatibility > > > while adding security enhancements. > > > > Rob, > > > > Are you sure you can fork the *current* PHP version??? The hardened PHP > > project > > still complains with the PHP license I think. I don't think the current PHP > > I meant *complies* not *complains* sorry (lol, I really need that cup of coffee > now) Yes you can fork it. The hardened PHP project complains that they're not allowed to use PHP in the name hence they use Suhosin. They mostly complain because they asked for permission and were denied and yet looking around you see things like PHPBB and other stuff including PHP in the name. The difference however is that PHPBB uses PHP as it's language but does not actually modify or distribute the PHP source itself. Specifically permission to fork is granted by this phrase: "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, is permitted provided that the following conditions are met:" And then there's a bunch of things you must adhere to which are fairly run of the mill. Cheers, Rob. -- .------------------------------------------------------------. | InterJinn Application Framework - http://www.interjinn.com | :------------------------------------------------------------: | An application and templating framework for PHP. Boasting | | a powerful, scalable system for accessing system services | | such as forms, properties, sessions, and caches. InterJinn | | also provides an extremely flexible architecture for | | creating re-usable components quickly and easily. | `------------------------------------------------------------' -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
