On Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:16:58 -0700 Grant H. wrote: > I was looking at the package yforth > (http://packages.debian.org/sid/yforth) and looking at the license > copyright file > (http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/y/yforth/yforth_0.1beta-23/yforth.copyright) > and had a few questions. Hi Grant, here's a full quote of the license under consideration, for future reference: | Copyright 1996-1997 by Luca Padovani, <padovani@sti.uniurb.it> | | This software is FreeWare as long as it comes with this header in each | source file, anyway you can use it or any part of it whatever | you want. It comes without any warranty, so use it at your own risk. > > Is this satisfactory under the DFSG as free software. My concern is > that while it says "anyway you can use it or any part of it whatever > [sic] you want." > > it doesn't say anything about copying the software. I think the above-quoted license is extremely vague and ambiguous. It's not at all clear what the term "use" is supposed to cover. Is copying allowed? Modifying? Redistributing (gratis or in exchange of a fee)? Distributing modified copies? None of these activities is explicitly permitted. As a consequence, this license does not (clearly) meet the DFSG. I think that the upstream author should be contacted and persuaded to re-license the work in a clearly DFSG-free manner. My personal recommendation for a simple permissive and widely used license that clearly meets the DFSG is the Expat license: http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt I hope this helps. Bye. -- 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
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