[Phpgroupware-developers] Open It ALL

[Alex Borges]

Okay, this is an RFI email. A weird one too.

Weve seen a lot of stuff happening here in the list and elsewere that
imply that some pople are missinformed, or have changed their minds with
respect of this project becoming a full GNU project, therefore with the
responsibility to abide by the policies of the FSF.

This email is an attempt to have you guys (those that fall into the
position i described), air your opinions openly. 

This project needs this to be discussed...erm...again..;-)

LICENSES
The FSF wants us to be a GPL/LGPL (at the choosing of each contributor)
project. Savanah obviously enforces this in its terms of use.

This means that the terms of the GPL and the LGPL have to be complied to
in ALL of the code that forms part of the phpgroupware project.

What is the phpgroupware project, in phisicall terms? Okay, its code in
the savanah cvs. 

If your code doesnt comply to the GPL or the LGPL, you CANNOT have it in
savannah CVS. It is contrary to savanah's terms of use.

Such is the case of the jscalendar, which i love, and illegally have it
installed in my servers. I say illegally because it is illegal to have
NON-GPL/LGPL code linked to GPL/LGPL code. You cant, for example, have BSD code
linked to GPL code, because the BSD license forces an advertisement
clause, which is incompatible with the GPL. 

As the advertisement clause in  jscalendar breaks provissions in the
LGPL license, it is NOT LGPL and the rights the LGPL grants distributors
are VOID, and so normal copyright  applies, which means, you cant
distribute it, change it...etc.


ASSIGNMENTS
The FSF requires copyright on software to be assigned to them in orther
to be part of the GNU project. If any 'significant' (the meaning of
significant is defined by them in http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_6.html#SEC6) 
part of software is not assigned, then we cannot be gnu software because
any case in a  court of law could be debilitated since not ALL
the software is owned by the FSF so the integrity of that ownership
can end up in jeopardy  when the case is made.

For this matter, the FSF also provides with a way for contributors 
NOT to assign copyright but to send in a disclaimer permitting us 
to use their software. You can see that in 
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_6.html#SEC5.
 
The point is that that is the policy of the FSF and, if we want to 
be GNU software, we have to comply.

So now, maybe most ppl here (significant contributors) do not WANT
phpgroupware to be GNU software. If there is consensus about this, then
the discussion is over and we carry on to savanna-nongnu or whomever
that will have us. For most of the core team that would be going back on
your word, but anyone is entitled to change their minds.

If that is not the case, then what is the problem?

If you still want to be GNU software, then why get upset when you are
asked for assignments? Or why get upset when other developers leave
because they dont want their software to be a part of GNU (like luca,
who was long gone anyway)?

I think that, for the benefit of the project a single direction is
needed. We cant have three leaders all pulling in their directions
without any attempts to find consensus.

We are not that many, the project is still growing and being adopted,
but this kind of thing can make us loose people, and i dont need to really 
spell out the dangers of that.

So, developers, make up your mind. Do you want this software (as in
'code in savanah cvs') to be gnu software or not?

Please, discuss and solve.