[Mediawiki-l] Licensing of extensions

[Brion Vibber]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Brianna Laugher wrote:
> ++++
>     But you can give additional permission for the use of your code.
> You can, if you wish, release your program under a license which is
> more lax than the GPL but compatible with the GPL. The license list
> page gives a partial list of GPL-compatible licenses.
> ++++
> 
> So does it seem safe to assume that all published extensions must be
> GPL, + whatever else is specified?

As the GPL FAQs note, the extension might well be under a more lax
license (such as BSD/MIT/X11-style, or released public domain).

The *combined result* of the extension and the core code *when linked at
runtime*, allegedly, according to the FSF's FAQ, becomes GPL. (The more
lax license doesn't say you can't add new restrictions, so the GPL
restrictions to the GPL code apply to the "derivative work" of both
codesets linked together.)

Of course if you distribute the code separately from MediaWiki core,
it's up to the end-user (site operator) and his/her lawyers to decide
whether the result is a license violation if they don't distribute the
runtime-linked code. :)

- -- brion
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkjs8VAACgkQwRnhpk1wk47vjgCeONidlyste0G5kawkF9iVKYUW
UMwAoJm5vjTdC0Ut5IxUq+/x1vxLlY+a
=qNvZ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----