Re: [Evolution-hackers] Evolution: Taking forward...

[Paul Smith <paul mad-scientist us>]

> * Move Evolution licensing to  "LGPL v2 and LGPL v3" to let us re-use
> the code more easily around the platform.

I'm a little concerned with this plan in conjunction with the "getting
rid of copyright assignment" plan.

Once you start accepting a significant amount of code without copyright
assignment, it will be difficult to the point of impossibility to change
the license again.

We can only assume that the FSF will, in the future, come out with a
GPLv4 and that this license will have its own set of incompatibilities
with the existing GPLv2 and GPLv3 licenses (ditto for LGPL of course).

So, if you change the license to "LGPLv2 or LGPLv3", then you'll be
right back where you are now when LGPLv4 is released, AND you won't have
the right copyright controls you do now that allow you to resolve the
problem.


IMO, if a software project is going to accept code without assignment
then they really should be using the "LGPLvX or later" license
structure, rather than providing a list of acceptable licenses.  Either
that, or resign yourself to FOREVER using ONLY the licenses you've
listed, come what may--dangerous IMO!