[Python-Dev] License cleanup

[Guido van Rossum]

After more than four years of living with an out-of-dated license for
Python, CNRI has finally agreed to clean up Python's copyright status.
I expect that this won't have any real effect before Python 1.6 is
released, but I am required to start preparing for the transition now.

We will use a new license (a clone of the JPython license) and we will
require that all contributors explicitly allow us the use of their
contribution: either a few email paragraphs in an email message, or a
longer form with a wet signature, depending on the size of the
contribution.

I believe the text of the license and forms we use is quite
uncontroversial; these very same words have been used for JPython for
quite a while.  The words are all on the web:

http://www.python.org/1.5/pylicense.html	[proposed license]
http://www.python.org/1.5/bugrelease.html	[email release]
http://www.python.org/1.5/wetsign.html		[wet signature release]

If you are reading python-dev but you never contributed any code to
Python, you can stop reading now.

If you *did* contribute code to Python, however, I'd love it if you
saved me some work and filled out the wet signature form and mailed it 
to me at the given address.

If you need help jogging your memory what your contributions were,
send me email; I can try grepping the CVS files for your name.

If you believe that special circumstances exist that make it
impossible or difficult for you to sign the form, please send me
email, and we'll discuss the matter.

If you contributed something and I don't hear from you, you will
eventually hear from me again -- but I hope I can save myself the
hassle of writing each of you through this mass mailing.

Thanks in advance!

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