Re: mdnsresponder: Wrong license
Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> wrote:
> - The copyright license is terminated if you attempt to defend your patent
> rights against Apple.
It should be emphasised that this is the case if you defend /any/ patent
rights against Apple. It's not limited to software patents, and it's not
limited to patents that you claim are infringed by that given piece of
software. I think this goes too far (but lean towards believing that
termination of patent rights wouldn't be an unreasonable thing for Apple
to do)
> - The license requires you to publish any local modifications if you deploy
> public services based on the Covered Code, which discriminates against a
> field of endeavour.
This clause aims to deal with what is seen by many as a flaw in
traditional copyleft licenses. I don't think it's a terribly convincing
argument in itself - it's no more actively discriminatory than the GPL
("discriminates against people who want to provide closed-source
software"), so the discussion is really whether we want to encourage or
discourage that sort of license.
> - The license includes a choice of venue clause forcing all licensees to
> accept the jurisdiction of the Northern District of California, which is
> discriminatory against persons located outside this district by exposing
> them to unequal legal expense.
But most licenses discriminate against people who don't speak English,
or don't have legal training, or...
Again, in itself, it's not seeking to discriminate. It's clearly not
equivilent to a clause that says "This software may not be used by
employees of arms manufacturers", which is the sort of thing that DFSG 5
was supposed to deal with.
But I agree with your summary. It's not entirely clear that the APSL
contravenes the DFSG, but it's also not entirely clear that it should be
considered a free software license. I think a firm conclusion is going
to have to wait until we actually have a project-wide discussion of how
the DFSG should be interpreted nowadays, especially in the face of
issues that weren't considered when they were written.
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.legal@srcf.ucam.org
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