[Opensim-dev] Violating the GPL by looking

[Michael Wright]

Well, we couldn't accept any GPL code, as that isn't generally compatible with BSD, in the sense that BSD code can't use GPL code (unless the gpl code has a FLOSS exception). And also we have third party libraries that just aren't GPL compatible, like physx. 

There has been talk about having code (say modules ) under say the LGPL, but it was decided that its easier to just have all the code in opensim svn under BSD. That doesn't stop people creating modules that are under a LGPL license, just that at this time we aren't including such code in our svn. 

Dzonatas <dzonatas at dzonux.net> wrote: Ryan McDougall wrote:
> ----- "Charles Krinke"  wrote:
>
>   
>> We would welcome support and contributions of code as long as they fit within the structure set up.
>>     
>
> Thats not true, since anyone from Open Second Life has been Tainted and is unable to participate in Open Sim. It sucks if your first patch happened to be fore Second Life, because now you will never be able to participate in Open Sim.
>
> *Thats* where the schism lies, and thats the exclusion:
>
> 1. There is no choosing Open Sim if you started out on SL. Everyone on SL-dev is tainted and can never help OpenSim.
>
> 2. In order to avoid taint, one must avoid open SL. OpenSim devs can never go to SL-dev if they ever want back.
>
> Two camps waving across the divide as they walk on by each other. Doesn't sound very promising to me.
>   


The overall impairment created here is not by the licenses themselves, 
but it is a choice solely based on criteria for what patches to accept. 
This is not a license issue.

One thing I do notice is that some people insist that all contributed 
code to OpenSim be under BSD (along with not looking at SL source). 
Notice I did say some, but look at the subject line of this mail and how 
the thread started.

There have already been posts to the mail-lists to request a broadened 
open source nature in such a way that there is no bias to BSD or GPL. I 
agree that a move to Open Standards, being mentioned before, is more 
viable to achieve a broadened open source nature between the communities.

Side note: I also point out the example of Mozilla where it has several 
components and plug-ins all under different licenses, and I wonder why 
there is here a greater bias for a license scheme to make all 
contributions comply in such a way that it takes on the same license scheme.

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