[open-science-dev] PyBOSSA: re-implementing the open source PHP BOSSA framework in Python

[Thomas Kluyver]

2011/12/14 Daniel Lombraña González <teleyinex at gmail.com>

> I would like to know which are the problems of using AGPL3 as this will
> really enforce a real open source project in the sense of a copyleft
> project. As PyBOSSA is going to provide a service, if we choose another
> license it will be possible to add new features, modify it, etc. without
> releasing the changes (that will be a pity) while with AGPLv3 you are
> forced to do it. If you go to the FSF and check the licenses they clearly
> recommend to adopt AGPLv3 if you are building a service and you want your
> code to be as open as possible ;)


I think the issue with the AGPL is that it's not clear quite how much code
could be considered a derivative work, and would therefore need to be
released under the AGPL as well. MongoDB, for example, uses the AGPL for
the core, but specifically adds "*we promise that your client application
which uses the database is a separate work"*[1].

For a framework, as I understand it, any project you use it for would need
to be released, which is probably a non-starter for many users. You could
grant this as a specific exception, like MongoDB, but it's probably simpler
just to use a more permissive license to start with. I doubt anyone's going
to add valuable proprietary code into the framework itself - and if they
do, how would you tell? - so there's probably little benefit to using AGPL.

For reference, (PHP) Bossa appears to be under LGPL, so you'd need
agreement from their contributors to use a BSD style license. I'd suggest
that the LGPL is the path of least resistance for PyBossa as well.

Thomas

[1] http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Licensing
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-science-dev/attachments/20111214/ba7dfe11/attachment.html>