Bug #6059

Please relicence, PHP licence not really fit

Details

Request #6059	Please relicence, PHP licence not really fit
Submitted	2005-11-24 18:25 UTC
From	kink at squirrelmail dot org
Assigned	jon
Status	Closed
Package	Log
PHP Version	Irrelevant
Roadmaps	(Not assigned)

Comments

[2005-11-24 18:25 UTC] kink at squirrelmail dot org

Description:
------------
Hello,

Thank you for the Log PEAR package. I have a request about its licencing. It's currently licenced under the "PHP Licence". I believe that this is not really fit for the package. Why not? Because it's very specific to the PHP software itself, not PEAR packages and other products made with PHP.

Examples:
Point 5 says: 'Redistributions of any form whatsoever must retain the following acknowledgment: "This product includes PHP, freely available from http://www.php.net/".'. This module does not include PHP itself..
Point 6: 'The software incorporates the Zend Engine,...', Of course, Log does not contain the Zend engine.

This also hinders the inclusion of the package in e.g. Debian Linux, for which it's important that a licence is actually correct.

As an advice, you might want to use the BSD or LGPL licences, which provide similar terms without the points above.

I hope you can relicence this under another licence, or dual-licence the software under the PHP and another licence.

thanks,
Thijs Kinkhorst

[2005-11-24 18:32 UTC] kink at squirrelmail dot org

I've noticed that a new version of the licence has become available, 3.01, which addresses some concerns (good) but unfortunately not all. For example, it still requires you to state "This product includes PHP software, freely available from <http://www.php.net/software/>" on any redistribution, which is not true.