[TYPO3-english] Releasing TYPO3 6.2 LTS under GPL Version 3

[Andreas Becker]

Hi All

The goal is to make TYPO3 more user-friendly. Right? To create a bigger
customer base? Right.
etc.

One very important factor in doing this would be to provide packages.
Fabien is already trying to improving the Introduction Package using
Bootstrap, Kay with Themes and Claus Due who provides lots of bootstrap
based Extensions and Joey with Grid Elements and many more people who use
meanwhile bootstrap and other modern coding approaches which are not
compliant with GPLv2 because they have been released under a license which
is not in the whitelist of GPLv2.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses
Check out the incompatible Licenses!

I think it is at the time to make TYPO3 ready for the new "CODINGS" in
releasing Version TYPO3 6.2.0 LTS Final under GPLv3

Here the thoughts:

We are v2 or later. I guess the question is are we re-licensing all the
software that is in the distribution package as gpl v2 or later? Or are
they keeping their respective licenses? If we are re-licensing then I think
we should re-license the distributions as gpl v3 or later. This would solve
the incompatibilities.

> I am not sure why we shouldn't. The reason we ask for gplv2 in code is
> because we haven't relicensed core yet. I don't think there is any
> legal/technical/spiritual reason why someone would object to making the
> distribution gpl v3 or later. Technically it's already gpl v3.
> Beside this it is a matter of fact that we would have already GPLv3 if the
> TYPO3 5 would have worked out. Ok Now we get Neos and Version 6 so why not
> releasing Version 6.2 LTS which breaks anywhay with many other conventions
> and things which were in place before to make it compatible again with the
> modern Free Open Source World incl. Bootstrap usage and other similar good
> code usages released under similar licenses like bootstrap.

---

Benefits:

A transition from 6.2 to NEOS would be much easier in Terms of Licensing

The use of modern Codings i.e. Bootstrap inside a TYPO3 package would be
immediately legal with the change to Version 3

Background:

i.e. Bootstrap is released under Apache 2 License which is not compatible
with GPLv2 because of their Terms in Redistribution:

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html

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> no bigger problem as the Apache 2 License could be simply added to the
package


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> no bigger issue but a bit more code


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see here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

> Please note that GPLv2 is, by itself, not compatible with GPLv3. However,
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While GNU recommends the latest Version of GPLv2 for most software it
recommends to use GPLv3 for Software Packages.

Because TYPO3 needs packages to be easier to use and faster to deploy we
need IMHO to relicense TYPO3 starting with Veriosn 6.2LTS for GPLv3.

As said Version 2 Extensions will still be able to be used as Version 2
allows you to continue using your code legally in Version 3! - I repeat:

> However, most software released under GPLv2 allows you to use the terms of
> later versions of the GPL as well. When this is the case, you can use the
> code under GPLv3 to make the desired combination.


So the switch to GPLv3 would be a necessary and it would be a very good
step for the further and future development of TYPO3.

Andi