Re: [oc] GNU LGPL license

[John Dalton <john.dalton@bigfoot.com>]

My vote is to continue using the
GPL, LGPL or BSD license.  If each
author starts modifying licenses,
soon we will have a legal minefield,
with dozens of designs using slightly
different licenses.  The resulting
confusion will DISCOURAGE people from
using opencores, as they will never be
sure of their legal status.

My suggestion:

Use the BSD license if you want companies
to use your work in their proprietory
designs.

Use the LGPL if you want to go halfway.  The LGPL
would probably prevent a core from being used in
a closed source ASIC, but I would think it could be used
in an FPGA if the user provided bitstreams for the
closed source sections of the design.

Use the GPL if you wish to encourage
full access to source.


Surely this accomodates the full spectrum:
from those who want their work to appear in
proprietory designs to those who wish
to promote a 'free software' ethos?

These three licenses are compatible, and so make
mixing and matching cores simple.

A lot has been written about the subject of this
thread in the 'philosophy' pages of the Free
Software Foundation:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/
There is also reading material, with less
emphasis on the freedom aspects, on the
opensource web site:
http://www.opensource.org/

Regards
John
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