Re: Re: Licensing of Perl Modules

Any proposed 'solution' which requires an update to every distribution on CPAN is unlikely to be successfull.

I don't think that anyone is yet calling for all authors of modules to change their licenses instantly. However, it was a problem of clarity in the licensing that was brought up by one of the ftpmasters responsible for allowing packages into Debian, and a few other individuals, many of whom also package perl modules for Debian, thought it was a significant problem.

I personally am going to be asking my upstreams of the modules that I package to clarify the terms that their modules are released under, unless the discussion here (and/or) on debian-legel leads me to believe that it's not a problem.

Comment on Re: Re: Licensing of Perl Modules

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Re: Re: Re: Licensing of Perl Modules by grantm (Parson) on Feb 05, 2003 at 20:27 UTC
Far from simplifying matters, I think that having each CPAN author 'clarify' their licensing position is only going to make things more confusing. The current situation is that Perl can be used under either the GPL or the Artistic license. A user can evaluate those licenses (which come with Perl) and make their own decision on whether they are happy to use Perl under those terms. A CPAN module is effectively an extension to Perl. If the module contains a clear statement that it is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself then the user does not need to make another decision. They have already decided Perl's licensing terms are acceptable. They can see that the module they want to use is licensed under the same terms and they can carry on. On the other hand, if each module author 'clarified' their licensing position by re-stating Perl's licensing terms then a user would need to read that statement and any accompanying license files and repeat the decision making process. The more words that a module author uses to clarify things, the more chance there is of making a mistake or introducing an inconsistency. I'm not saying that every CPAN module should have the exact same licensing terms - authors should continue to have the freedom to choose. But, if they choose to use 'the same terms as Perl itself' then they are saying to a potential user "don't worry about the license - you already made your decision about Perl's license and this is the same".	[reply]

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Re: Re: Re: Licensing of Perl Modules
by grantm (Parson) on Feb 05, 2003 at 20:27 UTC

Far from simplifying matters, I think that having each CPAN author 'clarify' their licensing position is only going to make things more confusing.

The current situation is that Perl can be used under either the GPL or the Artistic license. A user can evaluate those licenses (which come with Perl) and make their own decision on whether they are happy to use Perl under those terms.

A CPAN module is effectively an extension to Perl. If the module contains a clear statement that it is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself then the user does not need to make another decision. They have already decided Perl's licensing terms are acceptable. They can see that the module they want to use is licensed under the same terms and they can carry on.

On the other hand, if each module author 'clarified' their licensing position by re-stating Perl's licensing terms then a user would need to read that statement and any accompanying license files and repeat the decision making process. The more words that a module author uses to clarify things, the more chance there is of making a mistake or introducing an inconsistency.

I'm not saying that every CPAN module should have the exact same licensing terms - authors should continue to have the freedom to choose. But, if they choose to use 'the same terms as Perl itself' then they are saying to a potential user "don't worry about the license - you already made your decision about Perl's license and this is the same".

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