[Bf-committers] Dual license

Ton Roosendaal bf-committers@blender.org
Thu, 07 Nov 2002 15:14:39 +0100


Hi all,

We've released the code under a dual license, meaning that the Blender 
Foundation reserves the right to license the code under a BL license as 
well, next to the GNU GPL. This concept was adopted after discussions 
with Richard Stallman, and is fully compatible with the GNU GPL 
philosophy, although they "don't recommend it". It doesn't mean that the 
Foundation obtains copyrights, that remains with the original contributor.

I'm still doing a feasibility study on this topic, to find out if this 
might be a good way to establish revenues to cover Foundation 
exploitation. For the time being it is 'reserve the right' only.

We planned to organize this as follows:

- the official Foundation tree (and releases) will be strictly dual 
licensed, and contributors to that tree have to agree on it.
- other projects at blender.org (forks, experiments, special versions) 
can be hosted single licensed, as GNU GPL. Once such a project becomes 
interesting to incorporate in the main Foundation tree, a separate 
negotation will be done on this issue with the original copyright holders.

I'm sorry that we were not clear on the issue from the beginning. I just 
assumed that first stage, reorganisation of the build system, doesn't 
really involve licensing troubles. But even the Makefiles seem to be 
licensed... :-)

To be (legally) sure we don't break the license, I will contact all 
contributors personally this week to get their permission. And to be 
100% clear as well: contributions to the current cvs tree require that 
you accept both GNU GPL and BL.

Just mail me personally if you have questions.

Thanks!

-Ton-

_______________________________________________________
Ton Roosendaal | ton@blender3d.com | Blender Foundation
Amsterdam | The Netherlands |  http://www.blender3d.com