[clfswm-devel] CLFSWM license

[Philippe Brochard]

madnificent at gmail.com writes:

> Hello,
>
Hi.

>
> I was looking at CLFSWM and I find the concept interesting.  I've
> hacked the source code so the symbol manipulation works correctly in
> most cases (allegro's modern mode will still crash it when changing to
> another WM though).  I have more hacks planned.  However, I'm not at
> all comfortable with the GPL license in a lisp system.  As shown with
> CLISP, it is a recipe for legal issues.
>
First, thanks a lot for your interest in CLFSWM.

Any hack and bug fix is welcome!


> I personally release all code under the BSD license as I, as a
> programmer, understand the license and know what I'll be allowed to
> do.  I also value the fact that the code which I have written can be
> used in the companies in which I work.  I know I will not get sued for
> odd things I don't understand (again, read the mailing between RMS and
> the CLISP author to see how lawyers's reasoning is different from
> ours).  If you really want an obligatory (and to my view
> condescending) license, I'd be willing to contribute under the LLGPL
> (the Lisp Lesser Gnu Public License) which is most likely what you
> intend to have if you are convinced the GPL is the only way to go.
> For what it's worth, in any company I've  worked in so far, using and
> contributing to BSD code was praised, GPL not so much (due to legal
> issues).
>
> Though it's true that CLFSWM probably won't survive in a business
> context, it makes all the more sense to publish it in a liberal
> license which will not give either of the devs problems if something
> would happen.
>
>
> Thanks for considering this,
>
CLFSWM is under the GPL licence for historical and personal reason
(mainly, I do not care of proprietary software). 
It is inspired by Stumpwm which is under the GPL licence. I've used few
code from it and from Eclipse. This code is relatively easy to find:

$ egrep -nri "eclipse|stumpwm" *
AUTHORS:23:Stumpwm: http://www.nongnu.org/stumpwm/
contrib/clfswm:23:# Original code and idea: http://stumpwm.antidesktop.net/cgi-bin/wiki/SetUp
README:4: and [2]Stumpwm. Many thanks to them).
README:108:   2. http://www.nongnu.org/stumpwm/
src/tools.lisp:569:(defun find-free-number (l)		; stolen from stumpwm - thanks
src/keysyms.lisp:3:;;  This file is part of stumpwm.
src/keysyms.lisp:5:;; stumpwm is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
src/keysyms.lisp:10:;; stumpwm is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
src/version.lisp:4:;;  Borrowed from Stumpwm
src/xlib-util.lisp:174:;;; Workaround for pixmap error taken from STUMPWM - thanks:
src/xlib-util.lisp:178:;; in stumpwm. So far the only slot that seems to be affected is
src/xlib-util.lisp:397:;;; Stolen from Eclipse
src/netwm-util.lisp:67:;;; Taken from stumpwm (thanks)

There is also the contrib/clfswm script from Xavier Maillard which is
also based on Stumpwm code and under GPL licence.

All that said, I'm really attached to the GPL licence even for Common
Lisp code (BTW I've placed another Common Lisp project under the LLGPL
licence).
For now, I do not want to change the CLFSWM licence. So if you want to
contribute to CLFSWM, you'll have to place your code under the GPL
licence if you want to have it merged in the CLFSWM core code.
Another solution is to make your hack in the contrib/ directory and
place it in the licence of your choice.
Also, CLFSWM (and Stumpwm I suppose) are placed under the GPL licence
because they're expected to be run in free Common Lisp implementation 
(I regularly test CLFSWM in many of them) but not in closed source
Common Lisp implementation.

Indeed this is not a closed response and we have to discuss this on the
clfswm-devel mailing list (in CC) with others. It'll be sad to loose a
contributor.

Regards,

Philippe


> Aad Versteden
>
>
> PS: if you'd like to chat about it, feel free to add me on google
> talk, or hop by on irc.freenode.net and send me, madnificent, a /msg
> :)
>
Hmm, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not sufficiently fluent in English to
discuss this question on IRC in a comfortable manner. Please continue
this discussion on the clfswm-devel mailing list.