Re: license for paintlib
Torsten Werner wrote:
> may you check if the following license is DFSG free, please?
> http://www.paintlib.de/paintlib/copyright.html
Here is a copy of that license:
> Before the legalese starts, here's the translation to plain english:
>
> 1. Do whatever you want with paintlib. Just don't come running to me
> with a lawyer if something goes wrong.
> 2. If you redistribute paintlib, you should redistribute the whole
> library including documentation and copyright. If that is not
> possible, you must make it clear that you're distributing a changed
> version. In no event may any part of the library be distributed
> without this copyright notice.
> 3. If you use paintlib in your program, you must acknowledge this,
> preferably in the about box and the documentation.
>
> The legalese itself is a derivative work. I modified the LIBPNG
> copyright notice. Thanks, guys :-).
>
As the author says, this is not part of the legalese, and none of this
"plain english" interpretation indicates that the author interprets the
license in a unusual manner different from the actual text of the license.
> The paintlib source code and all documentation are copyright (c)
> 1996-2002 Ulrich von Zadow and other contributors.
>
> The paintlib source code is supplied "AS IS". Ulrich von Zadow and
> other contributors disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied,
> including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and
> of fitness for any purpose. The authors assume no liability for
> direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential
> damages, which may result from the use of paintlib, even if advised
> of the possibility of such damage.
>
> Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute
> this source code, or portions hereof, for any purpose, without fee,
> subject to the following restrictions:
>
> 1. The origin of this source code must not be misrepresented.
> 2. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such and must not be
> misrepresented as being the original source.
> 3. This Copyright notice may not be removed or altered from any
> source or altered source distribution.
No problems with any of this.
> 4. Executables containing paintlib or parts of it must state that the
> software "contains paintlib code. paintlib is copyright (c) 1996-2002
> Ulrich von Zadow and other contributors.". This notice must be
> displayed in at least one place where the copyright for the software
> itself is displayed. The documentation must also contain this notice.
Given that this does not require that the notice is in any specific
location, just that it appears somewhere that the notice for the
software itself appears (which might be nowhere that is easily
user-visible) as well as in the documentation (which could simply
include this license), this seems DFSG-free, although obnoxious like the
original BSD license. I don't think this is GPL-compatible, if that is
an issue.
> Note that libpng, zlib, libtiff and the jpeg library have their own
> terms of use. You can find these in the documentation of the
> libraries.
Assuming these terms of use are the same as the standard licenses of
those pieces of software used by the versions already accepted into
Debian (the author could have changed them, since they are not copyleft
licenses), this is not a problem.
Overall, this license appears to be DFSG-free but GPL-incompatible.
- Josh Triplett
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