[Python-Dev] License cleanup

[Greg Stein]

On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 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:

Actually, I don't like them all that much :-(
[I don't recall any specific discussion about it, but I may have missed it
and/or simply because I've never used JPython.]

The BSD-ish license that Python has always used is much more preferable. I
dislike the regulation of the "Python" name, the requirement to
prominently discuss modifications made, and the revocation clause. I might
find other items, but that is from a quick read using Lynx on a tiny
monitor...

Heck, how could people like PPSI, PythonWare, or D.C. truely like that
license? Each of those companies uses "Python" significantly in their
marketing and their business. I can certainly state that PPSI will never
do anything in an official capacity to recognize that license.

[there is a separate issue of whether "Python" can be trademarked, but the
license does use the term "trade name" which could easily be argued to
include the term "Python" and thus subject the name to the license.]

> 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.

No problem.

Future contributions and agreemend to abide by that license are a
different issue. It doesn't have the "feels good" feeling that the old
license does. I'm not sure that bodes well, and it doesn't sit well with
me at the moment.

Regards,
-g

--
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/