Third party libraries, modules and licensing
Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 7:11 pm
Hi,
I've been developing a CMSMS OpenID module for a while and it's gotten to the point of being ready for a first release. This would be my first open source contribution and I've been spending some time trying to get some understanding of the licensing terms. This proved to be quite a task for a non-lawyer so I hope more experienced people can help me out.
The module uses two components, namely:
- The JanRain PHP OpenID library licensed under the apache 2.0 license
- The jQuery OpenID plugin by jvance licensed under the Creative Commons v3 license
The module just wraps things up in a CMSMS friendly manner and provides a smarty tag to use in pages. I've had to modify both libraries in a few places but these are well documented.
What I'd like to do is:
- Release my module under the GPL v2, same as CMSMS
- Redistribute the other two libraries (with my changes) under their respective license
Is this possible? The stuff that I find the hardest to grasp in terms of licensing is the parts about derivate work. If my module has a class that extends a JanRain class, is my class then required to keep the apache license or can I choose another one? Or is there a better way to handle the licensing, like releasing the whole thing under apache v2?
Looking forward to your insights.
Best regards
Henrik
I've been developing a CMSMS OpenID module for a while and it's gotten to the point of being ready for a first release. This would be my first open source contribution and I've been spending some time trying to get some understanding of the licensing terms. This proved to be quite a task for a non-lawyer so I hope more experienced people can help me out.
The module uses two components, namely:
- The JanRain PHP OpenID library licensed under the apache 2.0 license
- The jQuery OpenID plugin by jvance licensed under the Creative Commons v3 license
The module just wraps things up in a CMSMS friendly manner and provides a smarty tag to use in pages. I've had to modify both libraries in a few places but these are well documented.
What I'd like to do is:
- Release my module under the GPL v2, same as CMSMS
- Redistribute the other two libraries (with my changes) under their respective license
Is this possible? The stuff that I find the hardest to grasp in terms of licensing is the parts about derivate work. If my module has a class that extends a JanRain class, is my class then required to keep the apache license or can I choose another one? Or is there a better way to handle the licensing, like releasing the whole thing under apache v2?
Looking forward to your insights.
Best regards
Henrik