Missing license options for modules

Here is a patch proposal, bundled as a bzr merge file.

Corrections made by revision 1981 <email address hidden>.
We appreciate your inputs.
Thanks.

Hello guys,

I'm not a lawyer blablabla, but I see in the list you can have a "proprietary license". Excuse me but all modules are statically linking to server code which is licensed under Affero GPL3. With no explicit exception this forces all linking modules to be GPL3 too (not sure if they could eventually be GPL2, may be, I don't know that).
So please either state a clear linking exception in OpenERP GPL3 license and assume the consequences or please remove those options that would otherwise lead to future license clashes we don't need.

do I miss something or what?

;-)

I think you're right Raphaël, no propriatary code can be written without a permission of all the authors, so the option is mostly be irrelevant.
Lionel

On Friday 12 February 2010, you wrote:
> For the moment the server will only accept modules with the following
> licenses defined in __terp__.py: 'license': fields.selection([
> ('GPL-2', 'GPL-2'),
> ('GPL-2 or any later version', 'GPL-2 or later version'),
> ('GPL-3', 'GPL-3'),
> ('GPL-3 or any later version', 'GPL-3 or later version'),
> ('Other proprietary', 'Other proprietary')
> ], string='License', readonly=True),
>
> We should have at least 2 more options :
> - Other free license
> - AGPL v3
> BTW, my understanding is that GPL v2 actually means "GPL v2 or later", so
> no need to double the GPL options. Lionel
>

GPLv2 is a different thing from "GPLv2 or later", these options have to be
separate.
Having all possible (including clashing ones) licenses in this list is a must,
IMHO. That python code is /not/ the place to enforce licensing.

In other news, I have long asked that OpenERP community, Tiny and all the
partners that have a say, DO ACCEPT proprietary licenses for modules, under
some conditions. Please see the previous threads and discussions on that. In
short, we shouldn't build a fortress around OpenERP and limit it to the GPL
world.

@xrg,

It's not about what we want or not (we can surely debate about that, this is just not the topic nor the place). It's just that as long as Tiny says the license is GPLx, and only GPLx, then it's only GPLx and nothing else. And GPLx doesn't not allow non GPLx modules linking statically to GPLx modules, GPLx gives precise rights and rules. This is as simple as that.

Some cheated the rules in the past, that's for sure, so be it, we won't remake the world here. There are also some special cases: like Tiny being the copyright holder (well officially), they could eventually double license it and bundle their own license with it or re-sale a double license (MySQL business model), there is also the case of module that are not GPLx but connect to OpenERP not statically by by the WS API, like OOOR (MIT license).

But in any case, I think the rules with regular modules should be the same for all. Tiny is already totally exposed to high-jacking with the Saas I think and we start seeing partners offering Saas while contributing everything back and others doing mother fuckers and keeping everything private (see my report on partner list).

We need a fair world. at Akretion we are fairplay. For instance we invested weeks buildling the new Magento connector (along with Openlabs) while enforcing the GPL rules. We don't want to compete with mother fuckers that do not enforce the same rules. That' very important I think to have clear rules (we can surely debate them) for all, it's the protection that motivate people like us to do so manything openly. Remove that protection (but then do it officially, take a stance) and we start doing the bastards like the others because we can't afford being nice and compete against people which are not.

That kind of licensing crap here only makes confusion. Not to say that if some day Tiny or somebody else where in trouble legally, trying to sue somebody for not respecting the rules (like a big Saas player investing millions to have a better Saas offer and beating everybody down the line with their own product), then that's that kind of licensing holes that would make it impossible to win the court case. I think OpenERP investors should very much worry about those approximations.

There is a 'Other OSI approved license' value since may 2010. Closing the bug.