LeechCraft is now licensed under Boost Software License. It is a lax license based on the MIT license with several improvements.
Boost Software License is fully GPL-compatible, though it doesn’t really matter in LeechCraft case since it doesn’t use GPL libraries at all, with the only exception for now being libsensors for the HotSensors module.
We’ve thought about relicensing and moving from a copyleft license GPL for quite a long time already, and there are several reasons for it:
- Freedom as in lax licenses is closer to our own understanding of freedom. We would have used WTFPL is it were more strict from the formal language point of view.
- Having such a license allows us to borrow parts of our code into our other closed-source projects that we do for living, some of them being proprietary. And this way we don’t have to deal with things like double-licensing.
- Such license also in theory would allow companies who wish to use LeechCraft in their proprietary stuff to again not deal with double-licensing or GPL obligations.
The last point maybe requires a bit more explanation. LeechCraft codebase is big and complicated enough for companies who wish to use it in their products to hire LeechCraft developers instead of working on it on their own. A non-copyleft license is typically preferred by organizations, since it doesn’t place a burden to open proprietary products’ sources, while the original LeechCraft version can stay open and enjoy the enhancements done on organizations’ funding.
Either way, it’s a win-win for the community, getting more enhancements, and for developers, who can get paid for their work on LeechCraft.