Re: [pygame] Licensing

[James Paige <Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 10:16:53PM -0400, Chris wrote:
> The more I read about software licenses, the more confused I get.
> 
> In general terms...
> 
> LGPL is "use but don't alter."

Not quite.
"Use but don't alter unless the alterations are also LGPL"

> AGPL is "use but whatever you make must be AGPL."

(I don't know this one, sorry)

> GPL is "use and alter but only if the derivative is free."

Close. "use and alter but only if the derivative is GPL"

> Artistic is "use but alter only with permission."

(I don't know)

> BSD is "use it for whatever."

Again, close.
"Use for whatever but don't remove copyright notice"

> I notice LGPL is used on a lot of pygame projects.  Is that because 
> pygame itself uses LGPL?  It makes sense for pygame to use LGPL because 
> it's a huge, widely used library but it's not apparent as to why the 
> game projects themselves to use LGPL.

Yes, the fact that pygame, and python are both LGPL is a main reason why 
many pygame games are LGPL.

But unless you modify pygame itself, your projects can be of absolutely 
any license you choose.

> I'm using the following chart for reference:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_licences
> 
> I'd like to hear why users of pygame chose the license they chose.
> 
> I'm leaning towards the Artistic License 2.0.
> 
> Peace.--Chris
> 
> 

James Paige