[Opensim-dev] GPL / BSD licensing dangers

[Diva Canto]

The issue here is not BSD+GPL licenses in general, although that's also 
an issue to worry about; the issue we most vocally warn people about is 
very specific to OpenSim and Second Life. OpenSim has been made legally 
possible due to the generosity of Linden Lab's publishing their 
protocols by means of some public documentation and, yes, open sourcing 
the client [under GPL]. So far, we have had the passive and, at points, 
active support of Linden Lab in developing OpenSim. But, as we all know, 
Linden Lab is a relatively unpredictable company; at any point, it could 
be acquired by another company who is less enthusiastic about a free BSD 
open source server side to their client. In the absolute worst case 
scenario, that other company could cause us a lot of grief if OpenSim 
includes code directly derived from GPL'ed viewer code. (I don't want to 
start a rhetorical discussion about this; that's just the worst case 
scenario, period.)

Hence, the "no risks" rule. We do not take patches from anyone who is 
actively involved in the development of viewers from the LL viewer family.

If, however, you are talking about your own modules that aren't part of 
the official OpenSim distribution, then OpenSim has no say about it -- 
do whatever you want. No one here is in a position to give legal advice.

On 6/30/2010 4:18 AM, Neil Canham wrote:
> Would anyone be able to tell me about the warning for any one person 
> not to work on both the OpenSim source and a viewer such as Hippo?  I 
> understand that there are licensing differences (BSD vs GPL 
> respectively) and that direct inclusion of GPL code in a BSD project 
> breaks the GPL license.  Surely you could guard against such direct 
> inclusion?  Does this extend to region modules and mini-region 
> modules?  I'm in the position of wanting to make changes to the viewer 
> and also to write MRMs or other modules.
>
> -- 
> Neil Canham
> -- 
>
>
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>    

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