[Xapian-devel] Xapian license change

[Wichert Akkerman]

On 05/17/2012 05:16 PM, Dan Colish wrote:
> The more I read on this thread the more I am confused. I'm starting to wonder who's asking for relicensing here because its starting to read like we, the Xapian developers, are asking how to relicense and what work we'd need to do. That is not the case. A request like this comes up once or twice a year and the requestor usually disappears a week later.

Unfortunately not totally unexpected.

> You need to be a part of the community to have this discussion. I'm sure anyone can appreciate what it is like for an outsider to tell you how to do things. So please, join the community, get to know its members, and write patches or create documentation. Help us improve Xapian for a bit, then we can talk about why the licensing needs to change and how to go about it. Remember, our time is an extremely precious resource and I would like to use that time to make Xapian better rather than rewriting code so it can be relicensed.

I do not think I am telling anyone how to do things, and that certainly 
is not my intention. So far I have only been asking for information 
about the status quo and which might need to be done for relicensing to 
happen, and Olly has been extremely helpful with providing that. I did 
already offer to do work myself in this area if I can help, as much as 
my time and skillset will allow. I have no expectation at all that other 
people will do anything just because I or someone else is asking them to.

I would also ask that you consider my point of view. With the current 
license unfortunately Xapian is not useful for me, so please do not 
expect me to invest energy into Xapian when that is not helping to 
scratch an itch I have. I am willing to work on Xapian, within and with 
the community as long at it helps me as well. That does include writing 
patches, updating documentation and everything else that might be needed.

Regards,
Wichert.