Relicensing of OpenSees

[kkremitzki]

So, this one is a huge longshot, but I think it's possible and worth trying. OpenSees is open source, but not free (as in freedom) software, because it restricts external commercial applications without paying a license fee. This prevents distribution by default in Debian & Ubuntu.

If you take a look at the OpenSees copyright, I think you'll agree that basically copying what The Qt Company does, i.e. dual licensing with LGPL3/commercial, would, in practice, accomplish the same thing as the current license. Companies making external commercial applications would have to either pay the fee associated with the commercial license, or open-source their code under LGPL3, which would be unattractive to a business when they could retain their IP by paying a fee.

I'd like to try to write up as convincing a letter as I can, share it, refine it, and then try to get signatories on the request. I think having a variety of credentialed people would really help get attention, and make this possible.

[kkremitzki]

I just made a post to the OpenSees Facebook page summarizing this issue to get feedback.

[wmayer]

Companies making external commercial applications would have to either pay the fee associated with the commercial license, or open-source their code under LGPL3

The LGPL has a rather weak copyleft and this means that when using it also in commercial applications the company does not have to publish its code under the LGPL or another open-source license. That's the main difference to the GPL with its strong copyleft that doesn't allow to link CPL-code with proprietary code.

The LGPL has the restrictions that when changing the library itself you must publish this source code. And when linking a LGPL library statically you must offer the object files and provide a method that a user of your application can replace the (modified) LGPL binaries.

[kkremitzki]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I had thought to mention GPL3 instead but figured it would be easier at first to just say "do as The Qt Company does."

[hardeeprai]

I just made a post to the OpenSees Facebook page summarizing this issue to get feedback.

Is there any outcome?

[kkremitzki]

I just made a post to the OpenSees Facebook page summarizing this issue to get feedback.

Is there any outcome?

Yep, I was advised to contact Frank McKenna who is one of the main OpenSees developers. For the record, I posted:

Hi, I'm a Debian (Science Team) Maintainer, FreeCAD developer, and an engineer. I was really interested to learn about OpenSees, but I see it's in the unfortunate position of being open-source software, but not free (as in freedom) software because of its license. This prevents distribution by default in Debian & Ubuntu, which are very common in academia, high-performance computing, and cloud computing, adding burden to users and admins. I see OpenSees also maintains an Amazon EC2 image, and if it were available in Debian/Ubuntu, the resources used to maintain that could be refocused.

The gist of the license is that use in external commercial applications is not allowed without paying license fees. Practically the same thing can be accomplished by mimicking The Qt Company which makes the hugely popular UI & application framework Qt. They offer Qt under a dual LGPL3/commercial license. If a company wishes to use Qt in an external commercial application, they have to open-source their code under LGPL3 as well, but given the option to retain their IP and pay for a commercial license, most will do so.

I know it's a long shot to request relicensing, but I think it would be very beneficial to everyone involved, and help adoption of OpenSees. I would volunteer to maintain it as part of the Debian Science Team along with several other related softwares I maintain already. Once it becomes available in Debian, it will also become available in subsequently released versions of Ubuntu and in other members of the Debian family tree.

This was, I think, before seeing wmayer's correction about LGPL.

[ebrahim raeyat]

Hello @kkremitzki. what is going on about this topic? is there any answer from OpenSees team?

[kkremitzki]

No news here.

[ebrahim raeyat]

No news here.

Thanks, if needed we can send them this request personally, one by one, perhaps this will be effective.