2018 ICPA Licensing

Mark Stelford (Unlicensed)

Prompt from abstract: Licensing is an important consideration when seeking to promote the wide adoption of a software platform. The ADAPT Committee selected the well-known, and broadly accepted, open-source Eclipse Public License for the ADM, the conversion framework, and community plug-ins. The licensing model for proprietary plug-ins is different from that of the community-supported tools: each plug-in writer can choose whatever licensing and distribution model best fits their business model.

Please write below: The ADAPT Oversight Committee worked with all interested AgGateway Member Companies to compile a list of key requirements for the Open Source Software (OSS) License to select for recommendation to AgGateway Leadership for providing access to the ADAPT software assets to the global community (Andres: this is from: /wiki/spaces/ADAPT/pages/56623625).

Stakeholder	Interests
AgGateway (ADAPT's Steward)	The license is usable. The license is well received internationally. The license is viewed as an integral part of promoting community and preventing fragmentation. The license encourages integrators to keep current with the latest stable ADAPT releases.
End Users	ADAPT performs as promised
Software (MICS and FMIS) Companies	The license permits ADAPT-compatible extensions to the data model and plugin source code The license permits providing ADAPT-compatible plug-ins under company-specified license terms, without restrictions on those terms. The license permits releasing plugins in source code form, binary form, or both. (In other words, source code disclosure is not required.) The license expressly states that companies are not required to support any unofficial "versions" of ADAPT (i.e., "forks).
Software Developers	The license permits building proprietary software that leverages the ADAPT data model. The license permits running multiple concurrent ADAPT instances. The license permits use of supporting resources, such as wiki content, test data, access to additional support, etc. The license permits developing plugins for formats other than those over which the developer has control (e.g., AEMP, USDA) and provide those plugins to other companies, provided that the identity of the software provider is clear to plugin users.

The Committee was fortunate to learn about OSS licenses from Mike Milinkovich, the Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation. Mike helped the committee identify an OSS community expert to help guide the process of selecting the best OSS license to fulfill our requirements. The member companies provided funding to engage the expert on a consulting basis. Although not an attorney, the consultant had a lot of practical knowledge as well as a great ability to explain OSS complexities to folks that were unfamiliar. This helped to speed up the process of selecting a license. Stakeholder companies were engaged to ensure their businesses would be supportive of the selected license to recommend for consideration to AgGateway leadership. Attorneys from several companies weighed in with questions/perspectives which helped the Committee gain additional confidence in the recommended license. In the end the Oversight Committee recommended the Eclipse Public License version 1.0 OSS license, which the AgGateway Leadership team adopted. Although this process took much longer than most stakeholders would like, it was an important foundational step to ensure strong support by a wide array of companies across the globe. Another aspect to promote support: AgGateway does not require licensees of the ADAPT framework to be members of AgGateway, although it is strongly encouraged to help in the promotion of e-business in agriculture.