[Tinyos-devel] Retiring tinyos-2_0_devel-BRANCH

[Philip Levis]

On Dec 15, 2006, at 12:50 AM, Joe Polastre wrote:

>
>  Given such considerations, I noticed that contrib does not require a
> specific license for the contrib/ contributions.  I assume this is on
> purpose to allow contributions under any license to be submitted to
> the TinyOS contrib source tree to foster greater collaboration and
> contributions.

The tinyos-2.x module follows the licensing guidelines in TEP 120.  
Currently, only the original TinyOS license[1] and the new BSD license 
[2] are allowed. If someone wants to make contributions to that  
source tree with a different license, they need to contact the TinyOS  
Alliance Steering Committee (currently the Alliance Working Group).  
Generally, the goal is to keep the set of licenses in the basic OS  
code small and have as few restrictions/requirements as possible in  
order to minimize the barriers to use. These pairs of licenses have  
the nice properties that they are compatible with almost any other  
license, in contrast to say, the conflict between the GPL and some  
versions of Apache. So they maximize what code can be used with the  
core OS.

The tinyos-2.x-contrib module currently follows a different set of  
guidelines. Currently, only the TinyOS license and new BSD license[2]  
are allowed. But a contributor can ask to use any OSI-approved open- 
source license[3]. If no-one has used the license before, the  
Steering Committee will need to check if it is OK. It's up to the  
contrib czars to figure out whether the license needs approval. The  
Alliance doesn't want to get into a debate over what's open source  
and what isn't, and so is relaying on OSI's judgement. Contrib is  
intended to be much more open in terms of licenses than the core OS,  
but some OSI-approved licenses will not be allowed. In particular,  
the fact that there is no linking in TinyOS makes the GPL difficult,  
as the question of whether it would make all other TinyOS code GPL'd  
does not have a certain answer.

Phil

[1] The original TinyOS license (from a Berkeley contributor):

/*
* "Copyright (c) 2005 The Regents of the University  of California.
* All rights reserved.
*
* Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
* documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without written  
agreement is
* hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice, the  
following
* two paragraphs and the author appear in all copies of this software.
*
* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY  
PARTY FOR
* DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES  
ARISING OUT
* OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE  
UNIVERSITY OF
* CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*
* THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES,
* INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF  
MERCHANTABILITY
* AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED  
HEREUNDER IS
* ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO  
OBLIGATION TO
* PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR  
MODIFICATIONS."
*/


[2] The new BSD license (from a Stanford contributor):

/*
* Copyright (c) 2006 Stanford University.
* All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
* - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
*   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
*   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
*   documentation and/or other materials provided with the
*   distribution.
* - Neither the name of the Stanford University nor the names of
*   its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
*   from this software without specific prior written permission.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
* ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
* LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
* FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL STANFORD
* UNIVERSITY OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
* INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
* (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
* SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
* HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
* STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
* ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
* OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*/


[3] http://www.opensource.org/licenses/