[Koha] Proposal To Switch Koha's License to GPLv3 and AGPLv3 or AGPLv3

[Dan Scott]

On 2 June 2010 15:20, Thomas Dukleth <kohalist at agogme.com> wrote:

<snip>

> 4.2.2.2.  CODE FOR OPENNCIP AND OPEN SIP2.
>
> Code modified from the Georgia PINES integrated library system,
> http://gapines.org , is the other GPL 2 only dependency which is
> [incomplete by my information] programming library code intended to
> support automated circulation  standards for Open NISO Circulation
> Interchange Protocol (OpenNCIP) and the Open Standard Interchange Protocol
> (Open SIP2).
>
> The code for OpenNCIP and Open SIP2 modified from Georgia PINES does not
> have any license headers.  Where the GPL 2 only invocation from which that
> code is derived differs from the GPL 2, with an or later version option,
> invocation for other parts of Koha and there are no notices for the
> difference; then notices must be added clarifying the distinction.  ved
> work of GPL 2 only code and the files are distributed with Koha for which
> there is presumption that files without copyright headers are intended to
> be licensed under GPL 2, with an or later version option, there may be a
> license violation currently which we should fix.  No one would be
> antagonistic about this issue but we should fix the problem of missing
> notices for such code to avoid creating confusion.
>
> Code for OpenNCIP / Open SIP 2
> http://git.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=koha.git;a=tree;f=C4/SIP
> .
>
> Options for overcoming the problem of the GPL 2 only code derived from
> Georgia PINES include:  persuade the copyright holder, the Georgia Public
> Library Service, to update the license invocation terms to add an or later
> version option; remove the code from an AGPL 3 or GPL 3 distribution of
> Koha; rewrite the code such that it would no longer be a derived work of
> the Georgia PINES code, perhaps code derived from Evergreen could serve
> the same purpose.

This is a concern not just for Koha, but for the Evergreen project as
well should it decide at some point to move to GPL3 or AGPL3.

I'm copying David Fiander, the author of the vast majority of the
OpenNCIP code, to ask if he was directed specifically to place the
code under the GPL v2 without the "or later" clause. I suspect that
the omission of the "or later" clause might be a mistake, as I'm sure
GPLS would have intended the OpenNCIP / Open SIP 2 to be "GPL v2 or
later" to match the rest of the GPLS-originated code in Evergreen. The
root COPYING license for Evergreen, committed 2006-01-30, uses the "or
later" clause - http://svn.open-ils.org/trac/ILS/browser/trunk/COPYING
- so I'm crossing my fingers that this is just an easily-corrected
mistake.

-- 
Dan Scott
Laurentian University