Re: Licensing

Rigo Wenning wrote:
> Fantasai, 
> 
> short answer as I'm in the middle of a conf..
> 
> On Wednesday 12 March 2008, fantasai wrote:
>> You didn't answer my two questions:
>>   >> What's holding you guys up?
> 
> Internal discussions over three possible solutions. The process is 
> started.

That's good to hear. Can I assume all three possible solutions address
the open source projects' need to freely create derivative works?

>>   >> And when can we expect resolution of this situation?
> 
> This does not depend solely on me, so I have difficulties to answer. 
> But as this has potentially a very big impact, it needs due 
> consideration and due consideration isn't for tomorrow.

Understandable. I just don't want this to drag on. Relicensing test cases
submitted by W3C Members is straightforward since (afaict) the copyrights
are owned jointly by the Member and W3C. Either can unilaterally relicense
the tests. It is not so simple for individual contributors since there is
no such agreement in place atm.

>> Being able to change the harness scripts doesn't help if the test
>> files themselves need to be modified as part of harnessing the
>> tests. For example, the MWI's harness adds navigation buttons to
>> the tests.
> 
> This is a non-issue as the MWI testsuite is a W3C testsuite, thus this 
> is a purely internal usage that is not guided by our licenses to the 
> outside. So this is not a good example. MWI has to coordinate with 
> CSS and take their responsibilities, but this is not a licensing 
> issue. 

It's a non-issue for the MWI, but it's a real issue for anyone else
wanting to create a similar test harness.

~fantasai

Received on Wednesday, 12 March 2008 23:57:47 UTC