[Savannah-users] Re: question concerning custom licenses

[Yavor Doganov]

Bryon Jacob wrote:
> 
> My issue is this -- the original library that I am forking does not  
> use any of the "standard" Free/OS licenses (GPL, ASL, etc.), it uses  
> it's own very simple license:

AFAICS this is a mixture between Modified BSD and Clear BSD licenses,
both of which are non-copyleft free software licenses compatible with
the GPL.

> I am not the copyright holder of this work, so (as far as I
> understand) I do not have the right to redistribute my modified copy
> of the work under any other license but this one.

Hm, not really.  The license explicitly gives you permission for that,
you just have to comply with the simple requirement of retaining the
copyright notices, etc.

> 1)  Does the above license allow me to distribute a "derivative work"  
> under some other license (GPL, LGPL, ASL) as long as I keep this  
> statement intact, too?

I don't know what ASL is but you can certainly do that with GPL/LGPL.
Most of your questions/doubts have clear answers in the excellent
paper published by the SFLC "Maintaining Permissive-Licensed Files in
a GPL-Licensed Project":
<http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2007/gpl-non-gpl-collaboration.html>

If you decide to distribute your package under a GPL-compatible
license, I guess there won't be any problems with hosting the project
at Savannah.