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Re: Re: Production Environments and "Foreign" Code

by Anonymous Monk
on Mar 13, 2003 at 03:53 UTC ( [id://242581]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: Production Environments and "Foreign" Code
in thread Production Environments and "Foreign" Code

Have you actually read the licenses?

Depending on the license, mingling open source code with proprietary is generally not wise. Unless your developers are very clear about drawing a line in the sand between proprietary and non-proprietary (eg no you can't cut and paste from here to there), you can get into trouble.

Sure the open source community is nice about it. Much nicer than the average corporation who you might have cut a deal with for code access. The FSF likes to get you to open source some affected code and then set up a voluntary compliance program rather than a lawsuit. But it is a real cost, and there is the fear that in 5-10 years someone who thinks that the GPL needs to be tested in court will be a real jerk about it. And depending on what your company does, you really might not want to unexpectedly have to GPL your code.

This doesn't mean that your approach is wrong. But the thought of developers who think this stuff is all free (and don't appreciate the legal risks) is what keeps corporate lawyers awake.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Re: Production Environments and "Foreign" Code
by IlyaM (Parson) on Mar 13, 2003 at 07:52 UTC
    You have a point here. Before using open souce software you should read its license and decide if it is appropriate for you. On the other hand majority of CPAN modules (but not all!) are dual licensed under GPL/Artistic. And Artistic is very flexible license with nearly no restrictions. I doubt using Artistic licensed modules can get you in any trouble.

    --
    Ilya Martynov, ilya@iponweb.net
    CTO IPonWEB (UK) Ltd
    Quality Perl Programming and Unix Support UK managed @ offshore prices - http://www.iponweb.net
    Personal website - http://martynov.org

      It is unlikely that Artistic licensed modules will get you into trouble. But it can. And has.

      I don't remember whether they were still Hip Communications or ActiveState, but they were shipping a binary version of Perl for Windows, named Perl, without contributing back code changes. That was a no-no. Read the license if you don't believe me. This was many moons ago and was resolved peacefully with Perl 5.005 incorporating ActiveState's changes. (This happened partly through the wisdom of Larry Wall et al, partly through the intervention of Tim O'Reilly, and partly through ActiveState's willingness to risk ticking off Microsoft.)

      However you are right that it is virtually impossible to conflict with the Artistic License by accident. But corporate legal may find that verifying this is harder than they want - particularly if they are afraid that code which is claimed to be under the Artistic might turn out not to be...

        I'd say that licenses like BSD and Artistic are less encouraging to contribute back than say GPL but it is more a problem for module authors then for their end users and your example shows it. In the context of this thread it is definetely is not a problem.

        As for corporate legal may find that verifying this is harder than they want: well, in this case you should not use Perl in first place as Perl itself and all core modules are dual licensed under GPL/Artistic.

        --
        Ilya Martynov, ilya@iponweb.net
        CTO IPonWEB (UK) Ltd
        Quality Perl Programming and Unix Support UK managed @ offshore prices - http://www.iponweb.net
        Personal website - http://martynov.org

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