The retirement of the PHP license

The PHP project has long shipped under its own license - except forthe parts under the Zend Engine License. The PHP project has now announcedthat the PHP license has been retired, and the PHP code has been relicensedunder the three-clause BSD license. See thisblog entry for more details.

Getting here required more than writing anRFC. The PHP License gives the PHP Group the authority tochange it, which meant tracking down each of the original PHP Groupmembers and getting their written consent. Each approved theproposal. Perforce Software, the successor to Zend Technologies,needed to sign off on the Zend Engine side, as well. They provideda formal letter confirming their full authority and support for thechange. I hired an attorney to review the proposal and provideadvice on any legal questions that might surface during thediscussion period. Speaking of which, I allowed for a six-monthcommunity discussion period preceding the vote, which passedunanimously.

LWN covered the license-change process back in March.