[Koha-devel] Koha Foundation: Free Software Foundation

[Chris Cormack]

Irma Birchall wrote:

> Hi, 
> 
Hi Irma

> Could I ask for some clarification?
> Isn't Koha already licensed under the FSF? 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation

No Koha is licensed under the GPL version 2.

# Koha is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under 
the
# terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free 
Software
# Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any 
later
# version.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

> If it were to be decided to start a "Koha Foundation" or join an alternate
> Foundation, how would this affect the license with FSF?
> Is the copyright of Koha held by FSF?

Not at all, we are not part of the FSF in any way. We publish our 
software under a license they wrote.

> Can Koha apply for grants under FSF? Receive donations? 
> How well does FSF oversee the 4000 licenses currently listed in its
> directory? Rules of entry and exit? What are the benefits to the Koha
> developers or the Koha users community, to be licensed under the FSF?

We arent licensed under the FSF, people who use Koha are bound by the 
terms of the GPL (which the FSF wrote).
Think of the FSF as a lawyer who you get to write an agreement for you. 
They wrote a license that thousands of Free Software projects around the 
world use to distribute their software.

> 
> And I also wonder how legitimate/important other librarians or library
> managers view the FSF and Koha's association with the FSF? 

We have no formal association with them, we use a license they wrote. 
Thats the extent of our involvement.

> I will make some enquiries amongst my library contacts in Australia.
> 
Enquiries about a Foundation would be good. But dont ask about our 
association with the FSF, we have none.

Asking how libraries would view the koha project starting a Foundation, 
or perhaps becoming part of an existing foundation, would be valuable.

Chris