[Savannah-hackers-public] Re: [gnu.org #323176] [Savannah] PEAR's QuickForm and the PHP license

[Sylvain Beucler]

Hello,

I initiated a discussion with the PHP and PEAR group:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.php.pear.devel/40682/focus=40682

Nobody is sure about whether the latest PHP license is compatible with
the GNU GPL, in fact.


- Could you precise whether the PHP license v3.0_1_ is compatible with
  GPLv2? There's only comments about compatibility with v3.0 (not
  3.01). I attach a diff. I think those changes were made to make the
  license applicable to works that are not PHP itself but also
  released by the PHP Group, following a request by the Debian-legal
  people.


- More importantly, is the PHP license v3.01 compatible with
  GPLv3draft2?

  The comment at the end of
  http://gplv3.fsf.org/wiki/index.php/PHP_license%2C_version_3.01 makes
  me thing there's no compatibility:

"However, the second draft of the GPLv3 prohibits the following additional 
terms:
    requirements regarding changes to the name of the work 
which conflicts with the PHP license's prohibition on using "PHP" as a name for 
the work."


This affects the way we approve GNU GPL'd project using PEAR packages
at Savannah, so I'd like to be sure about it. Can you check?

Thanks,

-- 
Sylvain


On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 09:27:04PM +0100, Sylvain Beucler wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'd like to include the QuickForm package/library [1] in my GPL'd
> application. It is licensed under the PHP license and is Copyright (c)
> 1997-2003 The PHP Group.
> 
> As the license is not compatible with GNU GPLv2, I'd like to make the
> QuickForm people switch their license. I already contacted them but
> they do not seem much informed about the situation. I know I could
> wait for GPLv3 but I need this library for a developpement right now -
> so I'm willing to spent a little time on a license change :)
> 
> Maybe I could add a GPL exception to my program in order to legally
> use it, but I also use other GPL'd pieces of code that I don't own, so
> this is probably not an option.
> 
> 
> I have 2 questions:
> 
> - Did you already have to deal with the PHP license and PEAR packages?
>   Do you have any advice/experience about this? This issue is not new.
> 
> - Do you know whether the 'PHP Group' is a legal entity? I asked the
>   QuickForm authors whether they signed a copyright paper - they
>   didn't reply yet. I could not find a way to contact this 'PHP Group'
>   either. I wonder whether the 'PHP Group' is really the copyright
>   holder of QuickForm, or if the copyright notice is just part of a
>   PEAR policy, without legal basis - in which case each contributor
>   would be a co-owner, and a license change would be quite difficult,
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> [1] http://pear.php.net/package/HTML_QuickForm
> [2] http://www.php.net/license/2_02.txt
> [3] 
> http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pear/HTML_QuickForm/QuickForm.php?revision=1.162&view=markup
> 
> -- 
> Sylvain

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