The State of Python

[Tim Peters]

[richard_chamberlain at my-deja.com]
> If someone had made a contribution to the standard library and had
> written a certain licensing agreement as a comment in the file would
> that module still be covered by the BeOPEN or CNRI agreement? - or
> would it's own license still stand?

I think you need a cadre of your lawyers to meet with CNRI's to get a
credible answer on that one.  Note that contributions to Python generally
weren't accepted if they contained a license more restrictive than the
Python license; for example, there is no GPL'ed code in the Python
distribution.  Note also that, late in the game, CNRI required a release
form with all Python contributions, specifically granting CNRI certain broad
rights to your code.

I personally contributed stuff to Python with an explicit "released to the
public domain" notice in the files, and *believed* I was contributing them
to be released by CNRI under the Python license, and I'm personally unhappy
to see the license changed (although, since I did put my stuff in the public
domain, they're free to do anything they like with it -- my objection is not
about the legality, it's about ... "playing fair").

[Guido]
> I'm not a lawyer, and CNRI has on several occasions claimed that in
> the view of their lawyers the old Python license is not a license.  So
> they may not feel they need to respect other people's licenses (many
> of those licenses are almost identical to the old Python license).
>
> But maybe they feel like respecting other people's copyrights, since
> they sure appear to believe in their own copyright!  So I expect that
> contributions that state a copyright may stand a chance.

I'm not a lawyer either (as you well know <wink>), but at least in America
you hold copyright on your works whether or not you state it explicitly.
Curiously, the CNRI disclaimer form didn't say anything about copyright.

> For more clarification, I suggest that you write directly to CNRI;
> contact info is on their website http://www.cnri.reston.va.us/.
> Especially if you own the copyright on some portion of Python and feel
> that your rights are in danger of being violated!