9.7Howdoyoumanageprojectslicenses

Question

How do you manage projects licenses?

Answer

    In this answer, a "license" means a given version of a given license.

    1) License choice

    Any OSS license may be accepted, as defined by our Intellectual Property Rights Policy (paragraph 1.7). The Board makes the final decision. When accepted, the license should be immediately published on the project's web pages.

    2) License change

    Any license change requires a Board decision. When accepted, the license change should be immediately published on the project's web pages.

    3) Board decision guidelines

• Should not arbitrarily ban any OSS business model.
• Should not affect negatively any member's business model (eg. dual-licensing, subscription...).
• Should foster reusability of OW2 components (mainly middleware - beware of usage restrictions).
• Should not impede cross-project collaborations.
• Should exercise regulation (eg. prevent appropriation of OSS components, reject a project that is not perceived as truly OSS, act as a "referee" to solve conflicts...).
• Should not allow a licence change toward more restrictive usage terms, unless OW2 has strong strategic reasons to do so.
• Should take into account the project "class" (eg. "core middleware", "application"...) to make the final decision.

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