[IAEP] 3 questions about Sugar Desktop Copyleft

[Walter Bender]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 9:47 AM, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:

>
> Hi
>
>
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/FAQ#What_are_the_principles_that_guide_Sugar_Labs.3F
> says
>
> What are the principles that guide Sugar Labs?
>
> Sugar Labs subscribes to principle that learning thrives within a culture
> of freedom of expression, hence it has a natural affinity with the free
> software movement (Please see Principles page in this wiki
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs#Principles for more details).
> The core Sugar platform has been developed under a GNU General Public
> License (GPL); individual activities may be under different licenses.
>
>
> That last sentence seems really weird to me, because as I understand the
> GPL, and I Am Not A Lawyer, then if Sugar is GPL, all Activities must be
> under GPL compatible libre software licenses.
>
> Eg
> https://github.com/walterbender/turtleart/blob/master/TurtleArtActivity.py#L35
> is linking to sugar.activity, and so if
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/blob/master/src/sugar3/activity/activity.py
> was GPL, it would form a combined/derivative work.
>
> but in fact, while most of Sugar is GPLv2-or-later -
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/tree/master/docs has copies of GPLv2
> and LGPLv2.
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/COPYING is a copy of the
> GPLv2
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-datastore/blob/master/COPYING is a
> copy of the GPLv2 (oddly without the preamble)
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/browse-activity/blob/master/COPYING is a
> copy of the GPLv2
>
> These say GPLv2 or later in the top comment of the source code files, but
> the list of authors is not maintained:
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/src/jarabe/main.py#L5-L7
>
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-datastore/blob/master/src/carquinyol/datastore.py#L5-L7
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/browse-activity/blob/master/browser.py#L7-L8
>
>
> - I found that sugar-base and sugar-toolkit-gtk3 (and perhaps other 'core'
> parts) are LGPLv2.1-or-later:
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-base/blob/master/COPYING is a copy of
> the LGPLv2.1
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/blob/master/COPYING
> is a copy of the LGPLv2.1
>
>
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-base/blob/master/src/sugar/__init__.py#L5-L7
> says LGPLv2.1-or-later
>
>
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/blob/master/src/sugar3/env.py#L6-L7 says
> LGPLv2.1-or-later
>
>
> So, I am curious :)
>
> Are there any proprietary Sugar activities?
>

There seem to be some in UY. And perhaps they are in violation of our
license. But Sugar Labs does/will not distribute any proprietary
activities.

>
> Have any parts of Sugar become GPLv3-or-later?
>

I thought we moved all of Sugar core to GPLv3-or-later. I will look for the
thread.

>
> The activities on ASLO have a variety of licenses, and it seems somewhat
> unmanaged. At random I picked
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4548 and it has a copy
> of the LGPLv3, but the code headers says GPLv2-or-later.
>
> Is it ASLO policy to only host works licensed under GPLv2-or-later
> compatible licenses, or is another criteria used?
>

We have guidelines [1], but enforcement is not automated so some things may
have slipped between the cracks.

-walter

[1] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Licensing

> --
> Cheers
> Dave
>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org
<http://www.sugarlabs.org>
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