[Foundation-l] status of the licensing update

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/2/22 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>:
> On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> 2009/2/22 Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com>:
>> > Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> >> As I understand it, the WMF made an agreement with RMS that the
>> >> projects would be dual licensed and not switched entirely. I think
>> >> making that agreement was a mistake, but there's not much that can be
>> >> done about it now. The WMF shouldn't go back on its word.
>> >
>> > I would be interested to hear what your source was for such
>> > a deal between RMS and the WMF.
>>
>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2008-November/047013.html
>>
>
> Is this a written agreement?  Why isn't it public?  Why haven't the reasons
> for the agreement been made public?

I don't know if it's written down or not, but that email makes it
fairly public. From what I can tell, it was just a compromise made
during the negotiations. The reasons are fairly obvious - the FSF
wants people to still be using their license and the WMF felt the need
to compromise, so agreed to it.