News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Debian and the PHP license. Parent comment

Re:Debian and the PHP license by icebraining on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @12:01PM (#8102949)
The solution is simple: modify the text of your project's license to have similar clauses to the PHP license, but not mention the PHP Group

That's not so simple; as a work produced by someone, a legal document may be subject to copyright. So you might need a license to the license to modify and reuse it :)

http://www.adamsdrafting.com/the-contract-drafter-as-copyrig...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Debian and the PHP license by TheLoneWolfling on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @12:42PM (#8103193)
Hmm... Is it possible to "self-host" a license? That is, is it possible to have a license licensed under itself?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Debian and the PHP license by icebraining on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @01:17PM (#8103416)
I don't know; and I'm not sure if anyone knows. As far as I know, there's no jurisprudence about the copyright of copyright licenses.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Debian and the PHP license by tedunangst on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @02:00PM (#8103732)
The GPL is itself copyright, but its licence doesn't permit modification. One example.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Debian and the PHP license by icebraining on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @02:11PM (#8103840)
But was that tested in court?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Debian and the PHP license by dfox on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @01:47PM (#8103637)
It's possible, but this is exactly the line pf reasoning that leads to self-contradicting an non-sencial licencing terms.
[ Parent | on HN ]