Re: licenses

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 04:52:45PM +0100, Gabriele Giacone a écrit :
> Hello mentors,
> The software I'm packaging includes 2 directories which contain files
> like these [1][2] and considers them as externals.
> [1] shows a license. Is it good for Debian? Should I only declare in
> d/copyright that software is "derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc.
> MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm"?

Dear Gabriele,

this license has been accepted many times in Debian in the past, as you can see
here:

http://source.debian.net/source/search?q=%22RSA+Data+Security%2C+Inc.%22

However, it contains a clause that will be infringed each time somebody
mentions or references the software you package. This is quite similar to
the BSD advertisement clause that was abandonned in the late XXth century:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html

You can find a longer discussion about MD5 implementations in the following
thread on debian-mentors:

http://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20090806045555.GA32678@kunpuu.plessy.org

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan