[cxml-devel] License (?)

[David Lichteblau]

Quoting Edi Weitz (edi at agharta.de):
> What exactly is the status of CXML's license?  The website says it's
> "(L)LGPL", some files say "LLGPL", some files says "LGPL".
> 
> If this isn't on purpose (but why?) maybe it would be easier to just
> release everything under the same license.

My understanding is that 
  - CXML, which was written by Gilbert Baumann and in its current form
    includes changes by knowledgeTools, was used and released by
    knowledgeTools under the assumption that it its license would
    permit use of CXML in a closed-source environment under the
    condition that changes to CXML itself are released as source code.
  - Since knowledgeTools only made changes to existing code, those
    changes must obviously be available under the exact terms of the
    license that Gilbert Baumann offered at the time.  I cannot recall
    whether Gilbert offered LGPL or LLGPL for all of CXML.  What I
    recall though is that he explicitly allowed LLGPL to be used for
    "glisp" (now "runes") when I asked him about that.
  - My understanding is also that Gilbert offers all of Closure now
    under a BSD- or MIT-like license, but that was *not* the case back
    when knowledgeTools made its changes, so the question is not what
    Gilbert thinks is appropriate *now*, but what the license *was* back
    then when knowledgeTools made its changes. 
  - I do not expect knowledgeTools to change the license of their
    changes to BSD/MIT or whatever.
  - I am not a lawyer.
  - I cannot speak for knowledgeTools.

So in a nutshell: Ask Gilbert.

Everyone with commit access to the closure project on common-lisp.net
should also have commit access to the cxml project, so if you get an
answer from Gilbert, I would like to ask him to simply correct the
various COPYING files there himself.


Gruesse,
David