Ok guys, I'm going to have to put my I-am-not-a-lawyer-but-I-can-read hat on again. I think everyone is getting a little excessively hot and bothered about the badging element of the Zimbra and Yahoo licenses. Just because the software has a requirement for a "powered by Zimbra" badging requirement does not suddenly put the clamps on anybody developing the software even in the (by no means certain or probable) event that MS buys Yahoo and shuts down Zimbra.
An interesting discussion of whether badgeware can legitimately be called "Open Source" is in
this article. This is another non-lawyer's opinion, but I'm gonna quote him anyway:
Quote:
Why does badgeware exist?
Simply put - It stops the Larrys of the world from taking your code, branding it with their big fat "O", making a mint off of it, and never paying you a nickle. Its another method that open source companies have found to create cash from "free" (or "monetizing" - stupid word). |
So let's have a look at the badging requirements the YPL imposes on us. The complete license is
here. I believe the relevant language is the following (emphasis mine):
Quote:
- 3.2 - In any copy of the Software or in any Modification you create, You must retain and reproduce, any and all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices that are included in the Software in the same form as they appear in the Software. This includes the preservation of attribution notices in the form of trademarks or logos that exist within a user interface of the Software.
- 3.3 - This license does not grant You rights to use any party's name, logo, or trademarks, except solely as necessary to comply with Section 3.2.
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What's important in this section is what it does NOT say. Nowhere in the license is there any mention that Yahoo, or its successors/assigns/acquirers, can yank from you the right to use the very logo that you must use to be in compliance with sections 3.2 and 3.3.
To my reading (and again, I am neither a laywer nor a Zimbra employee), anybody has a right to continue using and improving the Zimbra software as it stands today, even if tomorrow they announced that no more versions were going to be issued or that the license terms were being changed to something more limiting and onerous. Nothing in the license you have agreed to by installing any version so far--and as of today that is 4.5.10 and 5.0.1--binds you to any future license terms which may be different.
I believe this means the worst possible scenario is that the community might have to fork off based on the version that is in force with the license that is in force RIGHT NOW, and continue to tolerate a "powered by Zimbra" logo (which logo, btw, doesn't even include Yahoo!'s name) even if the new product gets named something else. Irritating? Maybe, but not the end of the software, let alone the end of the world.
Dan
Edit: I should add this is my interpretation of the FOSS side of the world. I am not claiming I know even this much about the NE proprietary stuff, which I suspect could be (I am not saying "will be") more easily limited since it's never been released under ANY open license.