Re: Licensing of package nauty
On Jan 24, 2008 8:35 AM, <bremner@unb.ca> wrote:
> Copyright (1984-2007) Brendan McKay. All rights
> reserved. Permission is hereby given for use and/or
> distribution with the exception of sale for profit or
> application with nontrivial military significance.
This is totally non-free, alas. It does not allow for modification of
the software, prohibits commercial sale (thus making it impossible to
distribute as part of a Debian DVD or CD set) and contains a serious
use restriction (against "nontrivial military significance", whatever
*that* means).
> You must
> not remove this copyright notice, and you must document any
> changes that you make to this program.
That bit's OK.
> This software is
> subject to this copyright only, irrespective of any copyright
> attached to any package of which this is a part.
I'm a bit unclear as to what this means. The author seems to think
that the notice itself is the "copyright", so when he says the subject
"is subject to this copyright only", I assume he means "subject to
this copyright *notice* only". That's probably OK, though it could
cause some compatibility problems if combined with GPLed software.
> I can ask the author if would distribute under some DFSG free license,
> but in the case that he declines, is there any other clarification
> needed before it can be included in non-free?
I don't think any clarification is needed for inclusion in non-free,
assuming that the "no sale for profit" wording is OK for non-free.
John
(TINLA)
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