Posted by ArtistConk on September 30, 2011 at 8:03pm
How strict is Drupal's GPLv2+ licensing policy? I've read numerous threads and reviewed lots of code, but it's still unclear.
Points of confusion:
- I see lots of code that's GPLv3-only or GPLv2-only in core and in contrib modules and themes. Yet http://drupal.org/licensing/faq/#q13 seems to indicate that such code is not in compliance.
- How is the MIT license interpreted by the Drupal-sphere in terms of compatibility and integration? I'm specifically wondering about versions of the MIT license that permit sublicensing.
I'm developing a contrib theme, and trying to determine what exactly is off limits. Also wondering if I potentially need to file a bunch of issues for non-compliant code.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
In order to use git you must
In order to use git you must agree to the terms on your profile page - which says in part "I will only commit GPL V2+ licensed code and resources to Drupal code repositories". If you find projects that aren't following the policy and are attaching their own license terms, you should ask the author to remove the code. Issues can be escalated to the webmasters queue if needed.
For MIT code, see 3rd party libraries on Drupal.org. Adding third party code to a drupal.org repository is generally not allowed. For example, it would be against the policy to add modernizr to your theme.
There are a few options for using third-party code in your project:
-- provide documentation for the user to install the library
-- link to hosted version, like googleapis.com
-- use the http://drupal.org/project/libraries module
-- request a policy exception from the infrastructure team
Thanks! After seeing a few
Thanks! After seeing a few exceptions (that I didn't realize were exceptions), a couple of non-compliant projects, and slightly unclear policy language, I couldn't tell if the licensing policy was just out-dated. That clears it up.