Public Domain Python

[Tim Peters]

[Grant Edwards]
> Very true.  However, they can't take _back_ previous licenses
> that have been granted.  If the new license isn't acceptible,
> users can split off and continue to develope Python under the
> old license.

Actually, if you read the CNRI License FAQ carefully, they appear to believe
they can *terminate* your right to use versions of Python prior to 1.6b1
without cause.  I have no idea where that idea comes from, and we have a
legal opinion stating they can't; but CNRI also said (see the FAQ!) that
they don't intend to, and it is indeed extremely hard-- even in paranoid
mode --to imagine a situation in which they would try it.  Even if they did,
they're not a big organization, and they'd be buried under deep-pocket
lawsuits the next day.

[William Tanksley]
> This is the beautiful thing about open source.  It's what I'm
> worried about CNRI taking away from us!  If they can change the
> license like this, and make the license retroactive to the
> first version they released,

[back to Grant]
> IANAL, but I don't think they can do that, can they?
>
> If they can retroactively change the terms of a license which
> had been granted at some point in the past, then that is scary.

I believe *this* one is Billy's fear-of-UCITA, which he's internalized to
such an extent that he doesn't mention the source anymore <wink>.