[I18n-sig] Codec licenses

[Guido van Rossum]

> M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> |
> | > scanning through the CVS archive of the SourceForge python-codecs
> | > project I found that most codec packages were placed under the GPL
> | > for some reason. This makes the codecs unusable for software which
> | > isn't GPL compatible and limits its usefulness considerably.
> | > 
> | > Please consider either moving to the LGPL which does not have the
> | > GPL problems (other software relying on it will need to be shipped
> | > under the GPL too), but still assures that your code remains freely
> | > available or one of the Python licenses (preferrably the
> | > old CWI one).
> 
> Well, I have two (opposite?) thoughts regarding to the licensing
> of the JapaneseCodecs package.
> 
> First, I've released the package under the terms of GNU GPL,
> because that license is comfortable for me.  I want users to
> "use" the package in the GNU GPL sense.
> 
> On the other hand, I hope that many people use my software.  If
> needed, I release JapaneseCodecs or its part under different
> licensing terms.  It is not a problem for me that a package that
> includes JapaneseCodecs as its part is released under an open
> source license (like the PyXML package).
> 
> To tell the truth, JapaneseCodecs is the first free software
> package that I've released, and when I released it I was not
> sure what was the best licensing terms for the package.  I've
> chosen the GNU GPL, but the situation seems complex...
> 
> If possible, I'd like to utilize two different licenses: the
> GNU GPL for JapaneseCodecs as a separate package, and another
> license for the composite package that includes JapaneseCodecs
> as its part.
> 
> Hmm...  Does this reply make sense?  I'm confused...

Makes sense to me -- you as the author can issue as many different
licenses as you want to.  E.g. Perl does this.

I don't know the composite package -- is that also yours?  If not, you
will have to give the author or distributor of that package explicit
permission to include JapaneseCodecs with a different license.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)