[Koha] Liblime, Koha, BibLibre and FLOSS

[Kyle Hall]

Maybe access to the source of in-house modifications should be a requirement
for being a listed vendor on the site? We may not be able to alter the terms
of the GPL, but we can decide the terms of koha.org ( assuming we have and
will have that much control over it ). I would expect that we would have to
grandfather all current vendors though.

Kyle

http://www.kylehall.info
Information Technology
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )



On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 1:35 PM, MJ Ray <mjr at phonecoop.coop> wrote:

> Nicolas Morin <nicolas.morin at biblibre.com>
> > [...] we at BibLibre
> > posted an article on our web site about this issue:
> > http://www.biblibre.com/content/liblime-koha-biblibre-and-floss
>
> Amongst other things, that says:
>
>  "BibLibre decided we needed to modify our standard hosting contract
>  to close the GPL loophole used by LibLime: in our future contracts,
>  and when the current contracts are renewed, an extra article is
>  added to the contract which specifies that even though the software
>  is hosted, the library has access to the source code, GPLed."
>
> I'm surprised because software.coop's usual contract terms have said
> that we "grant permission to the Buyer to use, copy, modify, adapt or
> enhance the material supplied in the performance of the Services, so
> far as [the co-op] is permitted to grant that permission" since at
> least 2006 and probably before (I'd need to check paper files to be
> sure).
>
> For Koha, that means you get a copy under the GPL, basically.
>
> What with all the flaming of LibLime for hosting lock-in, I didn't
> expect that other Koha vendors weren't making at least that promise
> already.  So - would the other vendors like to state their current
> contract permissions?  Anyone else want to follow the co-op and
> BibLibre and make this promise to your buyers?
>
> Also, I'd like to know whether anyone else's hosting-source-access
> clause forbids evil tricks like public key encryption?  Offering
> access alone isn't sufficient.  Also, what about the data?
>
> Thanks,
> --
> MJ Ray (slef)  Webmaster and LMS developer at     | software
> www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
> IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op
>
>
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