What is the license for this project?

[michael-okeefe]

According to project.clj, it is EPL. According to the pom.xml file, it is LGPL. Could you clarify?

Thanks!

Awesome project by the way!

[mikera]

For all my stuff, I'm happy either way....

Maik should probably get the final say!

[mschuene]

I would say EPL is the accepted default for clojure projects. I have not given any thoughts to it though. Do you have reasons to prefer LGPL over EPL ?

[mikera]

The reason I usually prefer LGPL is that it gives slightly more flexibility: You can use it in both EPL and GPL projects for example. EPL isn't compatible with GPL.

[arrdem]

I would chime in and argue that I see little reason to deviate from the standard set by the Clojure Core, let alone the surounding userland library ecosystem by using something other than the EPL. GPL compatibility is not something I see as a feature, I also do not see it as a concern given how little of the Clojure and Java universes is GPL licensed.

[mikera]

@arrdem: I think you may be misinformed: GPL and LGPL are both extremely common in the Java world. I can't find exact stats for Java alone, but for an idea of the relative importance of GPL and LGPL vs EPL in general you might want to look at:

• http://johnhaller.com/useful-stuff/open-source-license-popularity
• http://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-open-source-licenses

GPL/LGPL compatibility is a big feature for me: EPL rules out some projects for me for this reason. (whereas the converse is not true: you can use LGPL in EPL software just fine, so by picking LGPL you aren't inconveniencing the rest of the EPL-using Clojure ecosystem)

[arrdem]

@mikera: I'm truly sorry to hear that. I must confess that I have significant personal disagreements WRT the *GPL licenses and RMS's views on copyleft however this is not an appropriate forum for me to air them.

Unless Maik has significant reason to do otherwise (limitations of having ben a GSOC project if any, implicit state as a Clojure Contrib due to GSOC involvement if any) I would suggest going so far as to use an ultimately permissive license such as the MIT/X11 license or the WTFPBL, neither of which would conflict with the rest of the Clojure ecosystem, rather than adding to the copyleft estate.

[mikera]

You are right - this isn't a place for personal or abstract philosophical disagreements.

I am speaking purely from the practical perspective: LGPL and GPL are sufficiently prevalent in the open source world that compatibility with them is a pragmatic advantage. LGPL gives you that, whilst also being compatible with the EPL.

I'm also happy with an ultra-permissive license as well for my expresso contributions. Maybe that makes most sense here.

[michael-okeefe]

And just to clarify my original question, I'm fine with whatever license it is, I just wanted to make sure I understood which license applies to the project.

[mschuene]

Thank you for the discussion about the license. I changed it to the MIT license in project.clj and pom.xml