The State of Python

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]

[Greg Ewing]
> There's one thing I don't get about this whole
> license fiasco. What the heck gives CNRI the right
> to dictate what sort of license BeOpen is allowed
> to attach to its next version of Python? Surely
> they can use any license they like as long as it's
> compatible with the existing Python license.

CNRI claims that the existing (CWI) Python license isn't a valid license,
and while that claim makes little sense to me I'm not a lawyer.  At least
one enthusiastic lawyer on each side of that question is known to exist,
though, so that would make it a protracted court battle.  We just want to
get on with our Python work!  It's bad enough that it's taking so long to
resolve without sucking our ponderous legal system into it.

Beyond that, there are all sorts of complications, and we *want* this to end
on friendly terms.  For example, Guido did promise CNRI to produce a final
1.6 release for them, and BeOpen agreed to honor that commitment.  As the
copyright holder of record, CNRI can certainly put any license they want on
*that* release (the CWI license sure won't stop that, "valid" or not).  But
so long as we can get them to agree on a *reasonable* (as defined by us --
and if CNRI isn't asking you, we're the best hope you've got <0.1 wink>)
license, we'll be happy to ship Python 2.0 too using CNRI's 1.6 license.
That does look like the most likely outcome right now.  But if a reasonable
license can't be gotten, at some not-distant point we'll have to just cut
this off and risk Python's future on the validity of the CWI license and the
vagaries of the law.

But nobody on either side *wants* that.  JPython is also cringing in the
background here, and JPython is wholly & indisputably owned by CNRI (unlike
CPython, JPython was both born and raised at CNRI).  It would be of real
value to the JPython community to get a friendlier license for JPython too,
and CNRI has said they would consider re-releasing JPython under the CNRI
1.6 Python license.  That's worth some pain to achieve.

CNRI also owns the python.org domain and has copyright on that website (btw,
that's why it's barely been updated this month -- the ex-CNRI folks at
PythonLabs lost admin access to it), ditto jpython.org, hosts the Python
Consortium, and runs the PSA as well.  So it's not just the source code for
Python that's at risk here.

Of course, CNRI may have a completely different tale to tell about all this,
buy I can't speak for them.

lately-i-don't-think-my-employer-even-wants-me-speaking-
    for-me<wink>-ly y'rs  - tim