Comments on: Control versus community http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2010/01/23/control-versus-community/ open source software innovation support centre Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ross Gardler http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2010/01/23/control-versus-community/comment-page-1/#comment-257 Ross Gardler Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:27:28 +0000 http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/01/23/control-versus-community/#comment-257 Another example of "steps towards permissive licencing" is Alfresco's recent announcement that they have moved from GPL to LGPL. Interestingly John Newton (CTO of Alfresco) says: "Now we have grown the Alfresco brand considerably since its beginning, we believe that we can now move the Alfresco repository to the LGPL license... Compared to 2005 [when Alfresco switched to GPL], we see more of an opportunity to be a platform beyond individual applications, particularly with the emergence of CMIS. What the LGPL license provides over GPL is the ability to link in the Alfresco repository without affecting proprietary software that links it." So why not go the full way and adopt a fully permissive licence? John says: "we currently have two main LGPL components - Hibernate for database access and JBPM for workflow - which prevent us from going to something like Apache or BSD licenses. However, this is something we may consider changing in the future. " (Quotes from http://newton.typepad.com/content/2010/01/a-shift-in-alfresco-community-license-to-lgpl.html) Another example of “steps towards permissive licencing” is Alfresco’s recent announcement that they have moved from GPL to LGPL.

Interestingly John Newton (CTO of Alfresco) says:

“Now we have grown the Alfresco brand considerably since its beginning, we believe that we can now move the Alfresco repository to the LGPL license… Compared to 2005 [when Alfresco switched to GPL], we see more of an opportunity to be a platform beyond individual applications, particularly with the emergence of CMIS. What the LGPL license provides over GPL is the ability to link in the Alfresco repository without affecting proprietary software that links it.”

So why not go the full way and adopt a fully permissive licence? John says:

“we currently have two main LGPL components – Hibernate for database access and JBPM for workflow – which prevent us from going to something like Apache or BSD licenses. However, this is something we may consider changing in the future. ”

(Quotes from http://newton.typepad.com/content/2010/01/a-shift-in-alfresco-community-license-to-lgpl.html)

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