Explanation of non-GPL requirement in Standards

[rossjones]

https://github.com/theodi/ODI/blob/master/charter/standards.md says explicitly (in bold) not GPL.

I'm intrigued as to the reasoning for restricting the use of GPL code within ODI, or restricting the creation of GPL assets inside ODI - I'm not sure which way around it is.

Perhaps it would be worth clarifying in the standards what isn't allowed to be GPL, and even better, why.

[konklone]

Yeah, that's a bold prohibition (literally and figuratively). What's ODI's rationale?

[Floppy]

My understanding of that clause is that it refers to software that's created in the ODI, and we avoid GPL so as to allow maximum reuse of anything we create, without restriction. A bit like releasing content under CC-BY instead of CC-BY-SA. However, that's only my interpretation, so don't take it as an official ODI answer. I will let @agentGav have the final say (and will try to remind him to come here and answer when I next see him).

[agentGav]

James is correct here, but let's be clear - we do not restrict the use of existing GPL code within ODI, but we do favour licensing anything we create in a way that enables maximum re-use.
Hope that is clear?

[rossjones]

It's been interpreted by the US node that they're not allowed to sponsor/generate GPL or AGPL code, and although my PR doesn't cover that, hopefully it makes clearer that there is no restriction on using GPL code.

[konklone]

If the goal is to promote maximal reuse, then ODI could release their work, and fund released work, as international public domain, and lead governments by example.

[agentGav]

Indeed CC0 would apply to data and is useful in the USA and other countries where there isn't an existing default license (e.g. in the UK we have the Open Government License, which is applied by default in the UK public sector - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Government_Licence - and is compatible with CC-BY).

It is important to recognise and address the rights in data, code, databases, content, and any related assets individually - they are not necessarily treated in the same way.

For data, we strongly encourage the use of Open Data Certificates to help make it clear what data is being released as open data and how: https://certificates.theodi.org/

[konklone]

Overall you need to consider things differently, but CC0 can be used for software as well (unlike for the normal CC licenses). Just about all the software over at https://github.com/unitedstates is released under CC0, in part because it's a great, satisfying thing to do and in part because we're trying to lead by example.