Licensing AGAIN [was: Sharing FontLab Plugin]

[Kay C Lan]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 10:03 AM, Sannyasin Brahmanathaswami
<brahma at hindu.org> wrote:
>
>  "Apple's walled garden is not a fertile pasture for growing Free Software.  "
>
> ?? there are 10's of thousands of free apps in the app store. How is that an "unfertile pasture?"
>
You started so well and then fell into a common misconception. As
Richard pointed out Free and Libre are two different things.

> If your app has zero In-App purchases… it is really, really free.
>
> Just because of Apple's policy you want me....

> just feeling Apple Thorn in the side ...

>allowing Apple's rules become the ruling mandate...

Another common misconception is people incorrectly blame Apple. This
has NOTHING to do with Apple and everything to do with what License
you choose to use. It is the FSF who have INTENTIONALLY made the GPL
incompatible with proprietary software and ergo Apple, not the other
way around. Apple is more than happy to distribute OSS on it's
website, and there are many examples of that. You the Developer just
have to choose a license compatible with proprietary systems, of which
there are several. As mentioned previously, the struggle with VLC and
the eventual adoption of Mozilla Public License v2.0 is a perfected
example of Apple doing absolutely nothing to it's rules and the
developer choosing the right license so their app could be libre from
the restrictions actively enforced (in court) by the FSF.

In the case of LiveCode, you can buy your libre to choose the license
you distribute you app with by purchasing a Business or Indy License.
If you choose a Community License then you have no libre in the choice
of license for your work

I think a License Guide would be helpful to clear up some
misconceptions, particularly that all OSS licenses offer the same
libre and in particular with LC, some Buisness/Indy combined with
Community contribution apps may be incompatible with the desired
destination/audience/distribution method.