EllisLab suddenly has begun to assert that CodeIgniter License is incompatible with GPL

CodeIgniter

There are many applications which are based on CodeIgniter and licensed under GPL.

And libraries.

There are many GPLed code on CodeIgniter Wiki.

EllisLab has given "silent" approval to them for many years.


And CodeIgniter User Guide tells:

CodeIgniter is licensed under an Apache/BSD-style open source license so you can use it however you please.

See user_guide/overview/at_a_glance.html in CodeIgniter pacakges.


And on 22th October, President/CTO Derek Jones answered a question about new license on the CodeIgniter Forum like this:

Q: If EllisLab wants to give us real freedom on our own application why not explicit state that you we can use whatever license we want in the application folder? I am not interested in the CI code, just want to keep the GPL on my own app code.

A: How is this stopping you from using GPL on your own code? The AFL certainly doesn’t care.


http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/202562/#946360

(Nov 03)

Derek Jones commented to his post:

In the specific instance you are referring to, there are numerous details missing that make it impossible to provide an answer that applies to all situations.

This is actually interesting and raises an issue with the GPL that I didn't have time to include in the post. Let's demonstrate it with a few hypotheticals.

1) Fran has written her controllers, views, libraries, etc. in the application folder and licenses them as GPL 3.0 for her own web site. She is not sharing her independently written work with any one.

2) Fran has written her controllers, views, libraries, etc. in the application folder and licenses them as GPL 3.0 for a client's web site. She is not sharing her independently written work with any one.

3) Fran decides that she wants to share her work freely with others, so she creates a package containing her independently written GPL 3.0 licensed code, her documentation, and the CodeIgniter OSL 3.0 files, and makes it available for download on her web site.

4) Fran decides that she wants to share her work freely with others, so she creates a package containing her independently written GPL-licensed code and her documentation and makes it available for download on her web site; the documentation includes instructions for installing her code on CodeIgniter.

5) Fran decides that she wants to share one of her helpers with the CodeIgniter community, and releases it on its own under the GPL 3.0.

In which cases is Fran in violation of the GPL 3.0 and/or the OSL 3.0?

http://ellislab.com/blog/comments/gpl_or_not_to_gpl#comment-354086047


Today (Nov 01), all of a sudden, EllisLab has announced the incompatibility of CodeIgniter License on the official blog.

The CodeIgniter license is not compatible with the GPL. We’re not talking about OSL 3.0 here, we are talking about the simple license we have used for CodeIgniter from the very beginning.

So for everyone who has been tweeting or posting that the license change is going to prevent their product from upgrading / existing / or moving forward: I’m sorry to inform you that you have been in violation of GPL this entire time.

http://ellislab.com/blog/comments/gpl_or_not_to_gpl

To CodeIgniter users whom you want GPL compatible non-copyleft popular licesne

In CodeIgniter official UserVoice, there is a request for "GPL compatible non-copyleft popular licesne".

If you are CodeIgniter user, and you want GPL compatible non-copyleft popular licesne to CodeIgniter, please vote to it.

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