Hello,
On 10/12/2012 02:20 PM, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:
Kuno Woudt wrote at 08:56 (CE ST):
> (sidenote, I don't see google demanding a permissive license in [1],
> is there a different agreement I should be aware of?)
>
http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html
No, the thing I'm talking about is still in there:
>> You grant to Google a nonexclusive, worldwide, and royalty-free
>> license to: copy, distribute, perform, display, and use the Products
>> in connection with the Market and the Android platform.
This prevents distribution of software through the Market that makes use
of GPL'd code licensed from others. In fact, it will have this effect
on code released under anything but the most permissive free software
licenses. For example, it would also prevent incorporation other
people's LGPLed or MPLed code.
Doesn't the GPL already grant a nonexclusive, worldwide, and
royalte-free license to: copy, distribute, perform, display, and use the
licensed software?
I guess the problem is that if I as a developer agree to that developer
agreement I am giving Google those permissions without Google being
subject to the conditions of the GPL. I didn't read it that way.
> I think this comes down to the old question of whether it is
better to
> promote free software by only supporting sufficiently open and free
> platforms, and thereby depriving large groups of users of the
> opportunity to learn about free software through your application.
Again, classic trade-off related to copyleft/permissive.
I don't see this as a trade-off between copyleft and permissive. It has
previously always been possible to develop and distribute copyleft
software compatible with proprietary platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X
and the various proprietary unixes.
I was hoping we could figure out a way to do this in the app stores.
-- kuno / warp.