[Koha] SIP2/OpenNCIP development (was AGPLv3 discussion)

[Joe Atzberger]

>
> For example, the SIP2 implementation?
>
> That points to a problem.  Koha's SIP2 implementation is actually a
> fork of OpenNCIP [1], and I would like to merge in Koha's changes at
> some point and remove the fork.  But even if the fork never gets
> resolved, there's a problem: OpenNCIP's license is GPL2, not GPL2+.
> As GPL2 and GPL3 are incompatible licenses, if we license Koha using
> the GPL3+, we couldn't use Koha's SIP2 support code until either
> OpenNCIP is relicensed to GPL2+ or we get specific permission from the
> original copyright holder (the Georgia Public Library Service).
>
> [1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/openncip/


I'm working on updating that implementation itself, incorporating many of
the changes I previously made on the Koha version (but not all; some are
Koha-specific hacks).

I've pulled the repo out of it's CVS mausoleum and posted it to github:

http://github.com/atz/SIPServer


Updates will include 3M's checkin extensions that Koha already enjoys.  This
repo should serve as the de facto Koha-reconciliation codebase as well.
 Open to contributions, but the hard part isn't make patches: it's doing
real testing with the resulting code.

Long-term, I would like to see the perl stuff distributed as a proper CPAN
module, but that will be a pain.  Our namespace choices have been
exceedingly poor, and test coverage is lacking (koha is ahead there).  In
particular the example ILS abstraction layer (already a poor choice for CPAN
distribution) conflicts directly with Koha's self-serving reimplementation
in the same namespace. I am responsible for some of that.

So someday, I could imagine moving everthing under Business::SIP or
OpenNCIP::ILS or similar non-root namespaces.  And then, e.g:

ILS::Item     (example) => OpenNCIP::ILS::Item
ILS::Item        (Koha) => OpenNCIP::ILS::Item::Koha
OpenILS::SIP::Item (EG) => OpenNCIP::ILS::Item::Evergreen


Considering "SIP" is unrecognizable to most and also an acronym in VOIP
circles, using it as a filename in root cpan namespace is a bad idea.  And
Sip.pm makes even less sense.

Anyway, point being we have a venue for making changes to OpenNCIP,
including license update should GPLS approve.

--Joe
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