Difference between revisions of "Requests for Comments-12: Changing licence to Apache v2.0"

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The goal is to change of licence for OTB, Monteverdi, Monteverdi2 and ice to adopt the Apache v2.0 licence. The rational for this change is as follows :
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The goal is to change of license for OTB to adopt the Apache v2.0 license. The rational for this change is as follows :
  
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Copyleft is a very good protection for open-source software in general, since it ensures that it will remain open, but in our remote sensing world it can also lesser the dissemination of our software. Many time we heard of situations were OTB was considered by institutions or private companies for their projects and has been wiped off the table because they (or their clients or partners) wanted to distribute the resulting software under different terms.  
+
For some time now, the OTB community is considering a licensing change for OTB to switch from CeCILL v2 to the Apache v2 license.
  
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Sometimes, costly ad-hoc technical designs are used so as to include OTB in the project while distributing it under those required terms. We could argue that this is a matter of convincing everyone that copyleft is not harmful and that OTB is worth the price, but in the mean time OTB get less audience than deserved ...  
+
Copyleft is a very good protection for open-source software in general, as it ensures that it will remain open. But in the current context where OTB can be useful, copyleft may also restrict the use of the library. With hindsight, we observed that OTB was considered by many institutions and companies as part of their project, and the choice of its integration in their solutions could sometines not succeed because they ( or their clients or partners) wanted to distribute their solutions, integrating OTB under different terms.  
  
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From a practical point of view it could do no harm to simply change the licence to a more permissive one. This might help to develop OTB usage and eventually get more people involved in contributions.
+
This has sometimes caused individual and expensive schemes to include OTB in projects and still respect the license requirements. We've tried to convince our partners that copyleft is not "dangerous", but we note with regret that these arguments do not work and that the OTB thus not meet the public that it deserves. So we, from a practical standpoint, think that a more permissive license could only increase interest in the OTB and help its development and also the development of the community of contributors.
 +
 +
This licensing change also means better management of contributors with the implementation of specific documents to respect the rights of the latter.
  
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====== Roadmap ======
+
With a growing number of contributions, it has been now mandatory to improve the management of contributor. For example in the case of a change made necessary by a license update it. We would need to seek permission from each contributor (thing still possible at this stage but would quickly become impossible if one of them simply disappears).
  
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* Check compatibility of OTB projects third party
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Two options were open to us regarding the improvement of contributions management:
  
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We've checked that all third party library are compatible
+
    - Request an assignment of copyright, in which case the project owner will own the economic rights of authors and will be able to take further action on the distribution of the contribution, or
 +
    - Ask a wide license on the contribution while leaving the copyright to the contributor.
  
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We've taken the opportunity to :
+
We prefer the second option because there is no reason that contributors resign their copyrights.
 +
 +
A better contribution management for OTB will be of course better for contributors but also for potential users as it will reassures that the software contains no infringing item.
 +
 +
This licensing change will also allow be part of the initiative to make the project governance more open to any potential contributors following the establishment of the OTB steering committee in March 2015.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
====== Roadmap ======
 +
 
 +
* <s>Check compatibility of OTB projects third party </s> We've checked that all third party library are compatible
 +
 
 +
We've taken the opportunity of the license modification to do clarify some third parties integration :
  
 
** OSSIM plugins contributions from OTB will be moved to MIT license (following recent changes of OSSIM license from LGPL to MIT)
 
** OSSIM plugins contributions from OTB will be moved to MIT license (following recent changes of OSSIM license from LGPL to MIT)
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** We would like to add a special notice regarding the integration og
+
** We add a special notice regarding the integration 6S and related terms.
 
** SIFTFast is released under LGPL and we still be integrated in OTB (not compiled by default).   
 
** SIFTFast is released under LGPL and we still be integrated in OTB (not compiled by default).   
  
 
* Contributors agreement
 
* Contributors agreement
  
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Signed agreement of past contributors for license modification (adapted from Apache Software Grant).  
+
We asked pas t contributors to sign an agreement to ask them to re-license their contributions (adapted from Apache Software Grant).  
  
 
OTB will have to adopt this type of CLA for future contributors.
 
OTB will have to adopt this type of CLA for future contributors.
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* Apply changes to OTB source code
 
* Apply changes to OTB source code
  
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Modifications to the source code will be done in a feature branch with a script (https://git.orfeo-toolbox.org/otb-devutils.git/tree/HEAD:/LicenseMigration).
+
Modifications to the source code will be done in a feature branch with a script to automate the procedure (https://git.orfeo-toolbox.org/otb-devutils.git/tree/HEAD:/LicenseMigration).
  
 
** Update documentation  
 
** Update documentation  
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** Update info about otb license on: otb website, sourceforge, openhub,...
+
** Update info about otb license on: otb website, sourceforge, openhub,put CLA on OTB website
 +
 
 +
We suggest that if the license modification is approved by the PSC then it should lead to a new major version of OTB (version 6.0)
  
 
=====  When will those changes be available (target release or date) =====
 
=====  When will those changes be available (target release or date) =====
  
−
Discussion about changing the license was initiated in 2015 on the OTB blog (https://www.orfeo-toolbox.org/wind-of-changes/). We've to start again the discussion on the otb mailing-list and
+
Discussion about changing the license was initiated in 2015 on the OTB blog (https://www.orfeo-toolbox.org/wind-of-changes/).

Revision as of 08:51, 21 October 2016

Status

  • Not submitted yet

Content

What changes will be made and why they will make a better Orfeo ToolBox

The goal is to change of license for OTB to adopt the Apache v2.0 license. The rational for this change is as follows :

For some time now, the OTB community is considering a licensing change for OTB to switch from CeCILL v2 to the Apache v2 license.

Copyleft is a very good protection for open-source software in general, as it ensures that it will remain open. But in the current context where OTB can be useful, copyleft may also restrict the use of the library. With hindsight, we observed that OTB was considered by many institutions and companies as part of their project, and the choice of its integration in their solutions could sometines not succeed because they ( or their clients or partners) wanted to distribute their solutions, integrating OTB under different terms.

This has sometimes caused individual and expensive schemes to include OTB in projects and still respect the license requirements. We've tried to convince our partners that copyleft is not "dangerous", but we note with regret that these arguments do not work and that the OTB thus not meet the public that it deserves. So we, from a practical standpoint, think that a more permissive license could only increase interest in the OTB and help its development and also the development of the community of contributors.

This licensing change also means better management of contributors with the implementation of specific documents to respect the rights of the latter.

With a growing number of contributions, it has been now mandatory to improve the management of contributor. For example in the case of a change made necessary by a license update it. We would need to seek permission from each contributor (thing still possible at this stage but would quickly become impossible if one of them simply disappears).

Two options were open to us regarding the improvement of contributions management: 

   - Request an assignment of copyright, in which case the project owner will own the economic rights of authors and will be able to take further action on the distribution of the contribution, or
   - Ask a wide license on the contribution while leaving the copyright to the contributor.

We prefer the second option because there is no reason that contributors resign their copyrights.

A better contribution management for OTB will be of course better for contributors but also for potential users as it will reassures that the software contains no infringing item.

This licensing change will also allow be part of the initiative to make the project governance more open to any potential contributors following the establishment of the OTB steering committee in March 2015.


Roadmap
  • Check compatibility of OTB projects third party We've checked that all third party library are compatible

We've taken the opportunity of the license modification to do clarify some third parties integration :

    • OSSIM plugins contributions from OTB will be moved to MIT license (following recent changes of OSSIM license from LGPL to MIT)
    • We add a special notice regarding the integration 6S and related terms.
    • SIFTFast is released under LGPL and we still be integrated in OTB (not compiled by default).
  • Contributors agreement

We asked pas t contributors to sign an agreement to ask them to re-license their contributions (adapted from Apache Software Grant).

OTB will have to adopt this type of CLA for future contributors.

  • Apply changes to OTB source code

Modifications to the source code will be done in a feature branch with a script to automate the procedure (https://git.orfeo-toolbox.org/otb-devutils.git/tree/HEAD:/LicenseMigration).

    • Update documentation
    • Update info about otb license on: otb website, sourceforge, openhub,put CLA on OTB website

We suggest that if the license modification is approved by the PSC then it should lead to a new major version of OTB (version 6.0)

When will those changes be available (target release or date)

Discussion about changing the license was initiated in 2015 on the OTB blog (https://www.orfeo-toolbox.org/wind-of-changes/).

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