[Zlib-devel] zlib and LZMA

[Damien Miller]

Apologies for coming in late to this discussion.

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Mark Adler wrote:

> On Jul 17, 2006, at 2:51 AM, Mark Brown wrote:
> > Would it be possible for you to post the full license text as it  
> > stands?
> > That might make it easier to comment on it.
> 
> The full license is below.  I would be negotiating with Igor a  
> simpler license that still provides the constraints he requires.

Wow, this is really confusing. I respect your right to license your
code however you choose, but please reconsider adding restrictions to
the zlib license. Zlib has become so ubiquitous because of its simple
and very liberal license. Speaking as an OpenBSD/OpenSSH developer, we
certainly won't use or import new code whose licenses add restrictions,
as we want to make it as easy as possible for commercial vendors to
ship our code.

> 2) Common Public License (CPL)

FYI the CPL has a particularly pernicious clause (#4) that requires
that anyone who modifies covered code and then ships it indemnify all
"upstream" authors and contributors. This bit of nasty legalese came
from IBM IIRC, and it renders small projects who sell CDs with a risk of
having to pay legal expenses for all sorts of vexatious claims.

-d