=== Top of the Swiki === Attachments ===
Squeak compared to GPL and/or OpenBSD
Subject: Re: Licence
Resent-Date: 23 Mar 2000 01:50:26 -0000
Resent-From: squeak@cs.uiuc.edu
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 20:49:48 -0500
From: "Andrew C. Greenberg"
To: squeak@cs.uiuc.edu
> I would like to know, in simple words, how does the license of
>Squeak compare to GPL and/or OpenBSD.
First of all, effective yesterday, IANAL any more (yeah!).
My view is that Squeak is different, to be sure, from each of those
licenses, but can generally be characterized as a liberal (more like
BSD than GPL) open source license. Squeak has similarities, to be
sure, to each, and differences therefrom.
The license is available at http://www.squeak.org/license.html
There is a separate, proprietary license concerning fonts. Decidedly
non-open source. Of course, the fonts could be removed entirely, and
replaced with non-proprietary fonts, and the resulting product can,
consistent with the license, drop those provisions.
It grants liberal rights to copy, install and use the software for
internal or personal use.
It grants rights to liberal modify and create derivative works
(except for the fonts). This is like, but different from, BSD.
If you change, however,
(1) the methods of existing class objects or their existing
relationships, or
(2) any part of the virtual machine,
then you must make the modified software "publicly available."
N.B.: I had corrected myself in an earlier e-mail upon the
suggestion that this requirement only applied upon distribution, but
I believe in retrospect that this applies WHENEVER you make
modifications to that code, regardless of whether you distribute it.
Accordingly, it is somewhat stricter than GPL, which only requires
opening sources upon distribution.
> My understanding of it is that Squeak Licence is GPL for the Virtual
>Machine and OpenBSD for the rest. Am I right?
Pithy. I would answer your question, however, yes, and no.
> I'm trying to host a Squeak project in www.sourceforge.com, they
>need to certify that it 'really' is 'open source', so, I need to know if
>Squeak licence is like some of the known open source licences, or if I
>need to submit Squeak licence to be 'certified' by sourceforge's people.
The font stuff may be a challenge to them. On the other hand, it
might not be. As noted, I think you would be able to modify and
distribute, modulo the fonts, a modified draft, and lose the
quasi-proprietary provisions.
To submit it, just send them the copy. If they kick it back, ask
them for their reasons, and we'll help you out.