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adambullmer / vue-cli-plugin-browser-extension

Browser extension development plugin for vue-cli 3.0
GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0
427 stars 76 forks source link

More permissive license #91

Closed franciscolourenco closed 4 years ago

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

GPLv3 says that larger works, which include this package, need to make their source code available under the same license. This sounds quite a lot for a development package, which can prevent it from being used by many projects.

"Permissions of this strong copyleft license are conditioned on making available complete source code of licensed works and modifications, which include larger works using a licensed work, under the same license.

Would you consider switching to MIT license?

Cheers!

adambullmer commented 4 years ago

I think this falls under the exception of a well separated program as this is used for building and locally serving an app, but not at runtime. I'm by no means a law expert, its just how I've understood this clause to mean that application source wouldn't have to be published if this plugin were to be used as a part of the build routine. I think if necessary I could convert it to a LGPLv3 license specifying the use through the vue-cli plugin interface?

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLInProprietarySystem

If the two programs remain well separated, like the compiler and the kernel, or like an editor and a shell, then you can treat them as two separate programs...

Is this currently a blocker you're facing, or just a general note about license permissiveness?

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

I agree that it falls into that exception, but I'm no lawyer and there is a risk for different interpretations. Out of 60 direct dependencies in my project, this is the only GPL, with 55 being MIT, so I was wondering if there is a good reason for it. It's not a blocker, just a concern. Thanks!

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

Any chance of a resolution on this? I've analyzed my node_modules dir and out of ~3000 packages this was the only GPL :/ Thanks!

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

LGPLv3 would work :)

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

Sorry to ping again but this has became a blocker. Thanks!

adambullmer commented 4 years ago

just published a release 0.25.0 that is not licensed under lgplv3.

franciscolourenco commented 4 years ago

Thanks!