Deciding on a license for the Loomio app
Some software licenses are permissive, meaning that anyone can take the code and use it for whatever they want. The MIT license is one of these. The AGPL license is 'share alike', meaning that people can take the code and use it for whatever they like, as long as they share it back to the common pool.
Loomio was initially under the MIT license. After a group decision, we're in the process of transitioning from the MIT license to the AGPL license.
Poll Created Tue 3 Jul 2012 2:06AM
Continue developing Loomio under MIT license for now Closed Tue 10 Jul 2012 12:24AM
I propose that we keep developing the Loomio app under the MIT license for now. Meanwhile we will continue to evaluate as we go along whether or not we think it makes sense to migrate to a more restrictive license (such as GPL Affero).
I propose this for the following reasons:
- I've been told that it's easier to transfer from MIT to GPL than it is from GPL to MIT (in case we change our minds)
- As a general principle, the Loomio project favors openness and freedom wherever possible (unless it's obvious that a particular action will harm the community)
- The MIT license is ubiquitous in the Rails community
So yeah, my point is... I'm thinking that we should hold off on changing to something like the GPL until someone does more research and presents a strong case.
That said, I do think it would be wise of us to get someone (preferably a lawyer) to do some more investigation soon about the details of the GPL and MIT and what the respective vulnerabilities of each license are.
Results
Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Agree | 37.5% | 3 | |
Abstain | 62.5% | 5 | ||
Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Undecided | 0% | 892 |
8 of 900 people have participated (0%)
Richard D. Bartlett
Tue 3 Jul 2012 2:13AM
I am pretty keen on the P2P one but I feel completely over my head on this question.
Jon Lemmon
Tue 3 Jul 2012 4:01AM
To be honest, I feel just as clueless about this as everyone else. =)
Jon Lemmon
Sun 8 Jul 2012 10:23PM
Josh makes a pretty convincing case to me... Though I think we shouldn't consider this as a "final decision"
Poll Created Wed 8 Aug 2012 7:17AM
Relicense Loomio under the AGPL Closed Wed 15 Aug 2012 7:45AM
From the progression of comments in the discussion thread, it seems a consensus has emerged to change the free code license covering Loomio source code to the GNU Affero General Public License version 3:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
Unlike the current license (MIT), the AGPL has a 'copyleft' provision. This would oblige anyone distributing customized versions of Loomio to share their code changes back to the Loomio development team, and prevents other groups building proprietary software around Loomio without negotiating a commercial license from the copyright holders.
However, older versions of the code which have been published under the MIT license will continue to be legally reusable under the terms of this license. The license can be changed again at any time by consensus of all contributors (ie the copyright holders).
Results
Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Agree | 77.8% | 7 | |
Abstain | 22.2% | 2 | ||
Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Undecided | 0% | 891 |
9 of 900 people have participated (1%)
Aaron Thornton
Wed 8 Aug 2012 9:20AM
Given this logic, I am agreeing to this proposal at present
Richard D. Bartlett
Wed 8 Aug 2012 9:43AM
I feel out of my depth on this question but I have an affinity for GPL as the grand daddy of OSS
Jon Lemmon
Wed 8 Aug 2012 10:37AM
I'm inclined to say "yes", but I first want to quickly double-check with a legal IP expert (i.e. Rochelle) that we can indeed easily switch the code back to MIT at a later date if desired.
Paul Smith
Wed 8 Aug 2012 11:24AM
Think this fits best with the core principles as I understand them.
Jon Lemmon · Tue 3 Jul 2012 12:04AM
Hi everyone. I'm continuing this conversation from the previous discussion in the "Loomio Users" group about which license we should choose for Loomio:
http://loom.io/discussions/148
I've bifurcated the discussion because we've decided to not use the "Loomio Users" group until we have better controls for managing notifications from large high-volume groups like that.