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PHP Proposes Switch to BSD-3-Clause License
Quoting: PHP Proposes Switch to BSD-3-Clause License —
For decades, PHP has utilized custom licenses: the PHP License for the core language and a separate Zend Engine License for the sources found within the Zend directory. Wondering why? Here’s the answer.
Back in the day, the idea was that the Zend Engine could be unbundled and used independently. However, after 25 years of tight integration within the same repository, that separation is no longer practical.
At the same time, these separate licenses have long been sources of ambiguity due to specific clauses and their incompatibility with widely recognized licenses, such as the GPL. Moreover, while the PHP License previously gained Open Source Initiative approval, this was more a matter of legacy use rather than an explicit endorsement of its content.