[Biopython-dev] Adopting BSD 3-Clause license for Biopython?

[Peter Cock]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 10:43 AM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 6:45 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 6:40 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> Chatting with Christian in Orlando and the discussions for the
>>> BOSC 2016 talk he gave for the Biopython Project Updates
>>> reminded me about this long running licensing issue.
>>>
>>> I have opened a GitHub issue on this, and how I think we need
>>> to move forward (includes links to older parts of this thread):
>>>
>>> https://github.com/biopython/biopython/issues/898
>>>
>>> I have tried contacting the OSI via their online form, but suspect
>>> this is not something they can help with directly:
>>>
>>> https://opensource.org/contact
>>
>> Auto reply suggesting:
>>
>>>> If the FAQ does not answer your question, please contact
>>>> license-discuss at opensource.org. (Note that messages
>>>> sent to this address will be viewed and answered by the
>>>> public at large.)
>>
>> That's probably worth a try tomorrow...

Richard Fontana (Board Director, Open Source Initiative) replied.

Although not legal advice, his said that as a matter of law and/or
community norms, switching licence would require permission
of the original contributors - unless the original license allows
for this (and ours does not explicitly).

> In the mean time, we've made contact with the Software Freedom
> Law Centre (SFLC, http://softwarefreedom.org) via Software in
> the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI, http://spi-inc.org) which is the
> umbrella organisation the Open Bioinformatics Foundation
> (OBF) is part of for holding our financial assets.

SFLC have replied to the initial inquiry, but I have yet to receive
an answer about our specific question.

Peter