On Sat, 4 Feb 2012 09:23:29 +0900 Charles Plessy wrote: > Le Fri, Feb 03, 2012 at 05:16:26PM +0100, Raoul Borenius a écrit : [...] > Dear Raoul, > > these terms have been discussed earlier on this list, and many commenters > quiestionned its freeness. Thank you for searching the archives, Charles: I hadn't found the time to do so yesterday... > Nevertheless, our archive contains works > distributed under very similar terms. > > http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/a/apbs/apbs_1.2.1b-1/copyright This is worrying, IMHO. Even though the terms wsdl2python is distributed under are not identical to the clause currently under discussion, I think their effects are similar (but not identical). I think a serious bug should be filed against source package apbs. Any volunteers? > http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2009/08/msg00028.html > http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2009/09/msg00001.html > > This license allows to make derivatives under any terms, very similarly to the > BSD license. It makes it impossible to publish derivatives under no terms at > all. This restriction is much weaker than copyleft licenses, which forbid this > as they also forbid to redistribute derivatives under non-copyleft terms. > > Thefore, while the validity of this concept of default license may be > questionable, I do not think that it is non-free. I personally disagree: I think this clause is non-free. As I said [1] in one of the above cited threads: [...] | [The clause] says that, when you distribute enhanced source (without doing a | special action), you will automatically grant the *original authors* and | contributors *more* rights than those you received from them. [...] [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2009/09/msg00010.html Josselin Mouette seemed to agree [2] on the violation of DFSG#3, even though with slightly different conclusions [3] on the effects of the clause. [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2009/09/msg00012.html [3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2009/09/msg00015.html I reiterate the recommendation (for Raoul or any other volunteer) to get in touch with upstream and to try and persuade them to switch to a well-known and widely-used Free Software license, such as the 3-clause BSD license: http://www.debian.org/misc/bsd.license -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/frx-gpg-key-transition-2010.txt New GnuPG key, see the transition document! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
Attachment:
pgppDMyWbfN_2.pgp
Description: PGP signature