RE: [tdf-discuss] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

If you are going to quote the Free Software Foundation, please provide a link to the appropriate 
information. Note that one such statement, now 18 months old (before Apache OpenOffice had even 
organized as a podling and produced any releases), is less absolute: 
<http://www.fsf.org/news/openoffice-apache-libreoffice>.  You can see how Apache OpenOffice 
extensions are now managed by consulting the SourceForge-hosted download and extension 
arrangements.  These are under continual improvement thanks to the good offices of SourceForge.net.

Also, the FSF doesn't consider licenses that are more-generous than GPL to be for Free OSS 
software.  From their perspective, By that logic, Free BSD and Open BSD are not free.   Welcome to 
the post-1984 Brave New World.  I think developers are free to determine what protects their 
freedom, and they do so.

Note that, no matter what additional actions are permitted for ALv2-licensed software, the Apache 
Software Foundation and Apache OpenOffice provide complete, fully-archived, source code of all 
releases and that is an obligation under the ASF charter to operate in the public interest.  That 
the ASF is more tolerant of kinds of forking than the FSF has nothing to do with what users can 
expect of Apache OpenOffice as an open-source project.

The OSI and its Open Source Definition (OSD) are more tolerant.  See 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition> (and the quote from FSF there).

I had thought that this discussion had gotten beyond ideological hyperbole.  It is disappointing to 
have it recapped otherwise.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Immanuel Giulea [mailto:giulea.immanuel@gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 09:59
To: Ian Lynch
Cc: discuss@documentfoundation.org; Marketing; marketing@us.libreoffice.org
Subject: Re: [tdf-discuss] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

Thank you everyone for your participation, it was of much enlightenment.

LibreOffice is a true free libre open source software (FLOSS) whereas
Apache's project is not recognized to be a free software by the Free
Software Foundation.
LibreOffice has received the backing from several commercial partners such
as Red Hat, Canonical, Intel, Google, etc.


Immanuel


On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Ian Lynch <ianrlynch@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2 January 2013 16:00, Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@libertytrek.org> wrote:
>
> > I think the most important distinction to an end user, aside from knowing
> > that both allow them to *use* the software in any way they see fit -
> > personal, commercial, etc, is that the LO project is able to benefit from
> > AOO code, but AOO is not allowed to benefit from the LO code.
>
> Not strictly speaking accurate in that GPL software could not be *used*, as
> in integrated into a closed source application, even if the user saw fit to
> do it. But in general the essence is correct. Better or worse is a matter
> of opinion.
>
>
> On 2013-01-01 1:17 PM, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak <andrew@pitonyak.org>
> wrote:
> > > On 12/31/2012 02:40 PM, Immanuel Giulea wrote:
> > >
> > > > In the marketing materials that I am writing covering LO vs AOO, I was
> > > > wondering if it would be relevant to go into an explanation about why
> the
> > > > GPL/LGPL licence used by LO was superior to the ASL as a "true open
> > > > source".
> > >
> > > An average user does not care and will likely only be confused by any
> > > claim that LO is better than AOO based on LO using a more restrictive
> > > license or some sort of moral high ground that people should only use
> > > software using this license.  I expect that the more a person cares
> > > about the distinction, the more likely they will not need marketing
> > > material to explain it to them.
> > >
> > >  I found this great document that explains the three "most common"
> > > > licences:
> > > > ASL, GPL and LGPL (MPL is not included) (1, 2)
> > > >
> > > > Any thoughts on how relevant it would be to extract some of the
> > > > information
> > > > and apply it on the materials?
> > >
> > > Almost none. If you do desire to add something, I would probably say
> > > something like this (but with cleaned up wording and more thought).
> > > "Project contributors will note <blah blah blah>". Or have a section
> > > that calls out advantages specifically for people that changes stuff and
> > > contribute it back. The license is a choice, and some will prefer it and
> > > some will not.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Cheers and Happy New Year
> > > >
> > > > Immanuel
> > > >
> > > > (1)
> > > > http://www.openlogic.com/**Portals/172122/docs/**
> > > > understanding-the-three-most-**common-open-source-licenses.**pdf<
> http://www.openlogic.com/Portals/172122/docs/understanding-the-three-most-common-open-source-licenses.pdf
> > > > (2) http://www.slideshare.net/**slideshow/embed_code/10518967<
> http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10518967>
> > > >
> >
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