[Twisted-Python] Including code under PSF license for backwards compatibility?
Regarding licensing: Is it okay to include Python library code in twisted for purposes of backwards compatibility. Two examples recently: - Heapq is new in python 2.3. Therefore, regardless of whether we modify it or not, if we use it, we either need to depend on python >= 2.3, or include a copy for compatibility purposes. It has a pure python implementation. - yacc on IRC wanted to use tempfile.mkstemp. This only exists on >= 2.3. Again, pure python implementation. Therefore, Glyph: a pronouncement is necessary on whether, and under what conditions, it is acceptable to include PSF-licensed code in twisted. Select one: a) It is always okay. Copy freely from python into twisted. b) It is okay, as long as the modules are included for backwards compatibility only and can be removed as soon as the minimum required version moves up to 2.3 (or whatever the latest and greatest version we need modules from). Also the code under PSF must be segregated in a separate file. c) It is okay <fill in the blank> d) It is never okay. As you can probably tell, my initial inclination is (b). James
On Sun, 2004-09-12 at 20:44 -0400, James Y Knight wrote:
b) It is okay, as long as the modules are included for backwards compatibility only and can be removed as soon as the minimum required version moves up to 2.3 (or whatever the latest and greatest version we need modules from). Also the code under PSF must be segregated in a separate file.
As you can probably tell, my initial inclination is (b).
I agree. Consider that the pronouncement :). Code included under non- MIT licenses for any reason must have its license agreements preserved in the files themselves. For any MIT-licensed code from third parties, we should have an aggregate copyright declarations file for each project included at the top level. (This way we don't have to copy and paste licensing/copyright junk around when we refactor between files.)
participants (2)
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Glyph Lefkowitz
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James Y Knight