Posted by beeradb on February 11, 2010 at 6:38pm
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| Project: | Drupal.org webmasters |
| Component: | Licensing |
| Category: | task |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | closed (won't fix) |
| Issue tags: | Legal |
Issue Summary
The XML Parser (http://drupal.org/project/xml_parser) project appears to have some potential licensing issues. The project page says "To be honest, I can't even remember where the original class enclosed within the module came from" which indicates that the module maintainer is not the original author.
A quick google search on the class name by sreynen shows that this code is most likely from PEAR, http://pear.php.net/package/XML_Serializer/, and is licensed under a BSD license.
Considering the availability of this code elsewhere, I think we should consider this module for removal, or at the very least insist that the XML_Serializer class not be included in the distribution.
Comments
#1
I also opened an issue in the XML Parser issue queue to make sure the module maintainer knows this discussion is going on. That notification was posted at http://drupal.org/node/711680
#2
Plus, PHP has SimpleXML, so not sure why this is needed over built-in PHP stuff.
On review of the PEAR class, it doesn't match at all besides the base class name. On a little more investigation, it looks like the code possibly comes from the Freja library, which is CC GNU LGPL.
http://drupal.org/node/64293#comment-121451
http://www.csscripting.com/wiki/index.php?title=Freja
#3
Hmm, should have been more thorough when looking into that. It does look like the included library is actually from Freja. Good catch, Dave.
#4
I don't think it's directly copied from Freeja, or at least not the current version, which doesn't seem to include any PHP at all, only JavaScript. But I guess it's GPL since the PHP version is derivative?
PHP only has SimpleXML in PHP 5, not PHP 4, and Drupal 6 still supports PHP 4, so I don't think the module is a duplicate in concept anyway.
#5
The only PHP code I can find between Freja files is this one: http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/freja/branch/2.0.1/external/srvc-xslt.php.
#6
Hi - I'm the module maintainer - I too checked the PEAR code and it wasn't that ... hence me not being sure about licensing either. I don't think there is an issue, however I also didn't write the module and the guy who did cannot remember where the original class came from and I wasn't able to Google it up either, so it might even have been copied and pasted from a forum or something!
Re: #2, we were working with some nasty XML files being produced by a bespoke MS-based application when the module was first written - we tried *all* the available, in-built or otherwise, PHP options and none of them could parse them (a Drupal developer called Justin was tasked with trying to parse this cursed XML and drew a blank). I don't know why this was - I wasn't on the task - but it seems all comers (SimplePie, SimpleXML, etc. etc.) failed.
Consequently, another developer on the project was tasked with parsing this XML in the next iteration, and after another brief look at available options and more failure he Googled, found this class which really seemed to work where nothing else did, and put this module together. And it *did* parse the horrid files, hurrah! So there is a sane reason for it existing, it did fill a hole we discovered and it does simplify the task of getting XML files in to PHP. I use it all the time now because it's the only utility for this sort of task I've found that seems to *just* *work*, no matter what you throw at it. Perhaps we had some edge case? Perhaps XML support in PHP was in its infancy at the time as is improved now? I don't know. What I do know is people are already finding this module useful!
I kept the code and continue to use it, mainly because it works and I don't have time to mess about finding out which other options do/don't work with non-standard XML - what I use ain't broke, I have no incentive to hunt around for another solution. I just thought I'd share it since I find it immensely useful, and the original developer of the module said he didn't mind.
Hope that clarifies at least the history of the module, why it exists and why there's a grey area over this.
#7
@greg.harvey Thanks for the response. That helps clarify some things. Keep up the good work. :)
Despite what was discovered, I can't find how this comes from the Frejo project either. So unless anyone has proof it comes from a non-GPL project, we can't and shouldn't do anything more.
#8
Thanks. I've updated the project page to show licensing has been discussed and invite people who dispute the license to re-open this issue:
http://drupal.org/project/xml_parser