Switch license from MIT to BSL-1.0

[d-frey]

Dear contributors,

we would like to switch from the MIT license to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. Both are very similar with one crucial difference: The attribution clause of the BSL-1.0 has an exception for binaries. I'm not a lawyer, so do your own research if you want to get into the details.

The motivation for our change is to allow the use of the PEGTL in more environments, especially when it is difficult or even impossible for the binary to output the license. Think pacemaker-like device, but please no one use the PEGTL in pacemakers... 😅

In order to do the switch properly, we need the consent from everyone who contributed something that is meeting a certain threshold of originality. That threshold is required for your work to fall under copyright. As mentioned I am not a lawyer and I'd like to avoid having to judge your contributions. Therefore, I am simply asking you to give your permission to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0. You can do so by replying to this issue and clearly stating that you agree to the license change.

As we are also planning on switching our other projects, and if you have contributed to those other projects, it would be helpful if you could explicitly mention in your answer whether you give your permission only for the PEGTL or for all your contributions to our project, "The Art of C++".

Please also reply if you do not give permission to switch. It is better for us to have an explicit answer than having to guess.

Thank you for your contributions!

The Art of C++ Team: @d-frey @ColinH @uilianries

Pinging everyone from GitHub's list of contributors, in the order they appeared from GitHub:

@wravery @pleroux0 @Bjoe @studoot @sanssecours @samhocevar @joelfrederico @kelvinhammond @pauloscustodio @zhihaoy @redmercury @kuzmas @ras0219 @Amphaal @robertcampion @michael-brade @barbieri @delpinux @hutorny @andoma @lichray @jbomanson @mkrupcale @quadfault @bwagner @jubnzv @lambdafu @dkopecek @JohelEGP

[barbieri]

I did a minor contributor, but I appreciate your attention to the detail :-)

I, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri (@barbieri), agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater

[kuzmas]

Sure, no problem!

I, Kuzma Shapran (@kuzmas) agree to switch the license from MIT to Boost Software License (BSL)

[JohelEGP]

I, Johel Ernesto Guerrero Peña (@JohelEGP) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

[zhihaoy]

On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 10:35 AM Daniel Frey @.***> wrote:

In order to do the switch properly, we need the consent from everyone who contributed something that is meeting a certain threshold of originality. That threshold is required for your work to fall under copyright. As mentioned I am not a lawyer and I'd like to avoid having to judge your contributions. Therefore, I am simply asking you to give your permission to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0. You can do so by replying to this issue and clearly stating that you agree to the license change.

[...]

Pinging everyone from GitHub's list of contributors, in the order they appeared from GitHub:

@wravery https://github.com/wravery @pleroux0 https://github.com/pleroux0 @Bjoe https://github.com/Bjoe @studoot https://github.com/studoot @sanssecours https://github.com/sanssecours @samhocevar https://github.com/samhocevar @joelfrederico https://github.com/joelfrederico @kelvinhammond https://github.com/kelvinhammond @pauloscustodio https://github.com/pauloscustodio @zhihaoy https://github.com/zhihaoy @redmercury https://github.com/redmercury @kuzmas https://github.com/kuzmas @ras0219 https://github.com/ras0219 @Amphaal https://github.com/Amphaal @robertcampion https://github.com/robertcampion @michael-brade https://github.com/michael-brade @barbieri https://github.com/barbieri @delpinux https://github.com/delpinux @hutorny https://github.com/hutorny @andoma https://github.com/andoma @lichray https://github.com/lichray @jbomanson https://github.com/jbomanson @mkrupcale https://github.com/mkrupcale @quadfault https://github.com/quadfault @bwagner https://github.com/bwagner @jubnzv https://github.com/jubnzv @lambdafu https://github.com/lambdafu @dkopecek https://github.com/dkopecek @JohelEGP https://github.com/JohelEGP

I, Zhihao Yuan (@zhihaoy and @lichray), consent to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0.

(my employer's MTA filtered some parts of the message; fixed in GitHub UI.)

-- Zhihao Yuan, ID lichray The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

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[delpinux]

My "contribution" is so small ... fixing a typo if I remember. Please continue this excellent work ! And of course,

I, Stéphane Del Pino (@delpinux) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

[jbomanson]

I, Jori Bomanson @.***) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL-1.0 or greater for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

Keep up the good work! :)

On Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 21:17 Stéphane Del Pino @.***> wrote:

My "contribution" is so small ... fixing a typo if I remember. Please continue this excellent work ! And of course,

I, Stéphane Del Pino @.*** https://github.com/delpinux) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/taocpp/PEGTL/issues/270#issuecomment-928153162, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AC2RD5QIV7XKYGW5JMN73BDUECYKXANCNFSM5E3CWBXA . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675 or Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub.

[studoot]

You have my permission to switch license from MIT to BSL-1.0 for all projects within "The Art of C++" umbrella that I have contributed to, including (but not limited to) PEGTL.

Stuart Dootson

On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 18:35, Daniel Frey @.***> wrote:

Dear contributors,

we would like to switch from the MIT license to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. Both are very similar with one crucial difference: The attribution clause of the BSL-1.0 has an exception for binaries. I'm not a lawyer, so do your own research if you want to get into the details.

The motivation for our change is to allow the use of the PEGTL in more environments, especially when it is difficult or even impossible for the binary to output the license. Think pacemaker-like device, but please no one use the PEGTL in pacemakers... 😅

In order to do the switch properly, we need the consent from everyone who contributed something that is meeting a certain threshold of originality. That threshold is required for your work to fall under copyright. As mentioned I am not a lawyer and I'd like to avoid having to judge your contributions. Therefore, I am simply asking you to give your permission to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0. You can do so by replying to this issue and clearly stating that you agree to the license change.

As we are also planning on switching our other projects, and if you have contributed to those other projects, it would be helpful if you could explicitly mention in your answer whether you give your permission only for the PEGTL or for all your contributions to our project, "The Art of C++".

Please also reply if you do not give permission to switch. It is better for us to have an explicit answer than having to guess.

Thank you for your contributions!

The Art of C++ Team: @d-frey https://github.com/d-frey @ColinH https://github.com/ColinH @uilianries https://github.com/uilianries

Pinging everyone from GitHub's list of contributors, in the order they appeared from GitHub:

@wravery https://github.com/wravery @pleroux0 https://github.com/pleroux0 @Bjoe https://github.com/Bjoe @studoot https://github.com/studoot @sanssecours https://github.com/sanssecours @samhocevar https://github.com/samhocevar @joelfrederico https://github.com/joelfrederico @kelvinhammond https://github.com/kelvinhammond @pauloscustodio https://github.com/pauloscustodio @zhihaoy https://github.com/zhihaoy @redmercury https://github.com/redmercury @kuzmas https://github.com/kuzmas @ras0219 https://github.com/ras0219 @Amphaal https://github.com/Amphaal @robertcampion https://github.com/robertcampion @michael-brade https://github.com/michael-brade @barbieri https://github.com/barbieri @delpinux https://github.com/delpinux @hutorny https://github.com/hutorny @andoma https://github.com/andoma @lichray https://github.com/lichray @jbomanson https://github.com/jbomanson @mkrupcale https://github.com/mkrupcale @quadfault https://github.com/quadfault @bwagner https://github.com/bwagner @jubnzv https://github.com/jubnzv @lambdafu https://github.com/lambdafu @dkopecek https://github.com/dkopecek @JohelEGP https://github.com/JohelEGP

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/taocpp/PEGTL/issues/270, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAGDE4DZRIGDP4FNQHKWGADUECTOLANCNFSM5E3CWBXA .

[lambdafu]

You have my permission to change the license from MIT to BSL-1.0 or greater for all my contributions to PEGTL and any other projects within "The Art of C++" umbrella.

[robertcampion]

I give permission to license my contributions to this and any other taocpp project under BSL-1.0.

[sanssecours]

I give you permission to switch the license (for my minor contributions) from MIT to BSL-1.0 (or any other license you like) 😊.

[bwagner]

I, Bernhard Wagner (@bwagner ), consent to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0 or greater.

[mkrupcale]

I, Matthew Krupcale, consent to a license change of PEGTL from MIT to BSL-1.0.

[wravery]

I, Bill Avery, consent to change the PEGTL license from MIT to BSL-1.0.

For what it's worth, I'm not a lawyer, etc., I found this link discussing the differences: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/91/is-there-any-difference-in-meaning-between-the-boost-and-mit-software-licenses. One of the answers pointed out that the BSL is more explicit and therefore less broad in how you are permitted to use it (but without the requirement to redistribute the license with binaries). Would it make sense to dual license the project to minimize the disruption to existing users, in case anyone is in that gray area for what might be permitted under the MIT license but is not explicitly allowed under the BSL-1.0? Not asking because I know of any such uses, but I could imagine it being a problem.

[joelfrederico]

I, Joel Frederico (@joelfrederico), agree to license all of my contributions to PEGTL and any taocpp projects under any combination of MIT and BSL licenses of any version(s).

Hopefully this is sufficient, please let me know if it isn’t.

I know license version changes are tough to get right. Good luck!

[jubnzv]

I, Georgiy Komarov (@jubnzv), consent to switch the license from MIT to BSL-1.0 or greater.

[d-frey]

@wravery Thanks for the hint, but I think that the answer on SO also mentions "there may not be any practical difference" for that first point they make. All other points speak in favor of the BSL-1.0.

I would therefore try to not overthink this (which clearly proves I'm definitely not a lawyer 😉), and avoid the dual license model (which we discussed internally) as a dual license model might also be confusing for some users.

FWIW, Microsoft lists two open-source licenses as being suitable to incorporate their code into the Microsoft STL. The BSL-1.0 and the Apache 2.0 License with LLVM Exception. The Boost license is simpler, clearer, better known, and already pre-approved in many organizations. And if Microsoft's STL contains BSL-1.0 licensed code, I think we are OK, too.

[pleroux0]

I, Paul le Roux @pleroux0, agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

[uilianries]

I, Uilian Ries (@uilianries), agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 for all my contributions to your project, "The Art of C++".

[d-frey]

Received via email from @hutorny:

Hi Daniel,

Sure. I, Eugene Hutorny, consent to a license change of PEGTL from MIT to BSL-1.0.

Best Regards

Eugene

[michael-brade]

I, Michael Brade, agree to license all of my contributions to any of the "The Art of C++" projects (especially PEGTL) under any combination of MIT and BSL licenses of any version(s).

[kelvinhammond]

You have my permission for my contributions.

[d-frey]

First of all Thank You to everyone who has given permission so far, it is greatly appreciated!

We are still missing answers from a couple of contributors, so I'd like to kindly ask the following users to let us know how they feel about switching the license from MIT to BSL-1.0: @Bjoe, @samhocevar, @pauloscustodio, @redmercury, @ras0219, @Amphaal, @andoma, @quadfault, @dkopecek.

[pauloscustodio]

I, Paulo Custodio (@pauloscustodio ) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 for all my contributions to your project.

[Amphaal]

I, Guillaume VARA (@Amphaal) agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 for all my contributions to your project.

Sorry for the delay !

[anadon]

I, Josh Marshall (@anadon), agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater

[samhocevar]

I, Sam Hocevar (@samhocevar), agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 for all my contributions to your project, “The Art of C++”.

[Bjoe]

I, Jörg-Christian Böhme (@Bjoe), agree to change the license from MIT to BSL 1.0 or greater for all my contributions to your project, “The Art of C++”.

[d-frey]

Thank you everyone! I made one final point release (v3.2.2) which is still licensed under the MIT license. I will now push the commits that switch the license to the Boost Software License.

We had some remaining answers open, so I checked manually. @redmercury: I removed your contributions from the PEGTL before switching the license. If you give permission to switch to BSL-1.0, I can re-add them. In any case, thank you for your contributions so far!

The remaining open permissions are for:

• One contribution that is a documentation paragraph on vcpkg. If you are the contributor of this paragraph and you think it is sufficiently creative to warrant a copyright and you disagree with my decision, let me know and it will be removed.
• One contribution that is a small bug-fix, swapping the order of the rules in an sor<>.
• Two contributions that are no longer part of the current PEGTL.