Nov. 26, 2007
From Metadata-Registry
Telecon Agenda & Notes, Monday, Nov. 26, 2007
- License for the Registry software
- We have so far taken up and dropped the issue of an open source license for the Registry. Given that the Singapore NLB has just sent us a tender (to be discussed later) for a registry that seems similar to ours, it behooves us to assure that, should we not take up the tender, that anyone decided to take that and use our software needs to do so according to open source provisions. To recap:
- On May 21 we reviewed the issues and asked Stuart to take an action to decide.
- On Sept. 10 we revisited the issue, and the baton passed to Jon.
- Our main concern is that we have access to improvements made by others to the code, which we might want to pass on to other clients. MIT is the loosest license, GPL 2.0 doesn't allow software to be used in commercial applications, but there is also a version 3 available now.
- We have so far taken up and dropped the issue of an open source license for the Registry. Given that the Singapore NLB has just sent us a tender (to be discussed later) for a registry that seems similar to ours, it behooves us to assure that, should we not take up the tender, that anyone decided to take that and use our software needs to do so according to open source provisions. To recap:
- The Singapore Tender
- Although it looks to me like they wrote this to entice us to reply, it doesn't seem like a good idea for us to do so. The legal documents attached to the tender are considerable, and we're just not in a position to cope with that effectively. But the killer is on the last page of the Requirement specifications, which says:
- Given our commitments and preferences for open source, this may be as good a reason as any to decline.
- Does the query from HP/Singapore change anything?
- Action Item: Diane will contact them and try to work out a call, either Friday or next week.
