[Debian-olpc-devel] squeak/etoys (Re: Fwd: sugar)

[Bert Freudenberg]

On 02.04.2008, at 16:17, José L. Redrejo Rodríguez wrote:
>
> El mié, 02-04-2008 a las 14:12 +0200, Bert Freudenberg escribió:
>> On 02.04.2008, at 13:24, Holger Levsen wrote:
>>> Hi José,
>>>
>>> On Wednesday 02 April 2008 09:58, José L. Redrejo Rodríguez wrote:
>>>> About the etoys packaging:
>>>> - My intention is packaging e-toys as a squeak-image, and doing the
>>>> same
>>>> with other squeak images that are around. So, etoys should provide
>>>> squeak-image, squeak-image-3.10 should provide squeak-image ,
>>>> squeakland-image should provide squeak-image, educarex-image should
>>>> provide squeak-image, and so on.
>>>> - No one of these images can go to Debian yet, as the relicencing
>>>> process of the image has not finished,
>>>> and thus, they are not DFSG
>>>> compatible yet. I'm afraid that won't happen before 8 or 9 months.
>>>
>>>
>>> I thought the etoys/squeak image OLPC uses was free by now? (And
>>> even free as
>>> in DFSG..)
>>>
>>> CC:ing Bert Freudenberg to get feedback from squeak upstream :-)
>>
>>
>> Note that I am an external contractor for VPRI so I cannot speak on
>> their behalf (that would be the job of Kim Rose, VPRI's executive
>> director). But here is my take:	
>>
>> The OLPC etoys version is developed by the Viewpoints Research
>> Institute (see vpri.org), a non-profit organization headed by Alan
>> Kay. He was the boss of the original Squeak group at Apple, took
>> Squeak to Disney, later to HP, and then to VPRI. VPRI negotiated with
>> Apple to relicense the core under Apache 2.0, and they collected
>> agreements to use external contributions under MIT (though the vast
>> majority of code was authored by Alan's employees). They now release
>> the OLPC etoys.image under Apache2.0/MIT which is perfectly  
>> compatible
>> with DFSG, so in my understanding it can go into Debian now.
>
> Bert, I'd be more than happy if that's true, but according to the
> squeak.org information, there are a lot of code in the vm that still  
> has
> not been relicensed from the Apple license to MIT. Authors of this  
> code
> have not answered to the relicense requirement, so the plan is
> rewritting their code. There is a project
> (http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6016 ) to do it, but there still some
> hundred of methods to be rewritten.
>
> Can you confirm me that the code that has not been relicensed has been
> removed from the olpc image?

No. But VPRI as the original authors take responsibility for the  
earlier contributions made under the Squeak License. VPRI made every  
justifiable effort to contact the contributors. Not a single  
contributor was against relicensing, so it is safe to assume that even  
those that could not be reached would be happy to see their code  
continue to be used. They submitted it for official inclusion in  
Squeak, after all. So who would argue that, if not the contributors  
themselves?

> In that case I have already the package ready, just filling the ITP  
> and
> uploading it to Debian would take a couple of days.

I forwarded your message to Kim. She assured me that the OLPC etoys  
version is free:

"I agree -- VPRI is releasing the code in the etoys.image used on the  
XO (and on other platforms as can be used) under the MIT license now.   
This is a non-issue for the XO now. What 'Squeak.org' is doing with  
their release/download is on a separate track,  but I do know they are  
hard at work to also finish the re-license effort."

I also asked Kim to answer you directly to confirm this.

- Bert -