New Open Source Project

[fcsoft-3Emkkp+1Olsmp8TqCH86vg at public.gmane.org]

I facilitate a couple of open source projects on Sourceforge.

In both cases the "product" is itself a library,   so the licence I chose was 
the LGPL.

This licence permits users of these libraries to incorporate them into 
commercial products without having to release the commercial product code 
linked with that library under any particular licence.       If these users 
make modifications to the library code itself to enable a new feature then 
they are obligated to relicence those changes under the same LGPL terms.   
ie.  make the source code available.

In practice most users/developers who make changes to my libraries will 
submit them back to the project maintainers even though the LGPL licence 
doesn't force them to do so.    The reality is I have no real way to police 
this as I wouldn't hear from any of the "cheaters".

In my experience the hardest thing about starting an open source project is 
not deciding on the licence or even writing the seed code,  but rather 
working to build a sustainable developer/user community around the project.   

That is where the real work lies.

bob


On January 3, 2005 09:54 pm, you wrote:
> Anybody's help would be appreciated on the topic of starting a new open
> source project.
>
> I have a project that I would like to start most likely using the LAMP
> suite and I wanted to find out some info and opinions on what steps I
> should take to get started.
>
> For instance:
> 1. If the source code is PHP. There are a number of libraries out there
> with some nice functions. Can this type of code be included without fear of
> retaliation?
> 2. In most projects that I have looked at there is at least one LICENSE
> file (GPL agreement). Can I simply use this file together with my project
> to prevent unorthodox use of the project or parts?
> 3. If I see some useable code in other GPL projects, can I use the code
> according to the GPL by simply getting written (email) permission to do so?
> 4. If I do get to reuse code, do I have to indicate within the code of my
> project what lines are reused and from where, or is permission to use (#3)
> sufficient?
> 5. What other considerations or groundwork does anybody suggest before I
> leap into the world of Open Source project building?
>
> Thanks to all
> - Paul
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml