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Re: Spice copyright

On Tue, 26 Aug 1997 23:36:46 EDT Dale Scheetz (dwarf@polaris.net) 
wrote:

> On 26 Aug 1997, Guy Maor wrote:
> 
> > Philippe Troin <phil@fifi.org> writes:
> > 
> > > Well, *I* made a few patches to make it compile and work with Debian.
> > > I can claim that I GPL these changes, and that anyone who wants to charge for a Debian CD (or whatever) charges for these changes, in which I claim no royalties.
> > > Does that sound reasonable ?
> > 
> > I suppose so, but interpreting the clause in this way renders it
> > fairly meaningless.
> > 
> It doesn't resolve the requirement for a signature on an agreement in any
> case, which is also enough to make it non-free.

I'm trying to sort out this mess with UCB...
Enclosed my mail to them...

Phil.
--- Begin Message --- 
On Mon, 25 Aug 1997 08:16:44 PDT Carol Block/ILP Coordinator 
(cblock@hera.EECS.Berkeley.EDU) wrote:

> I am sorry, however this was the first email I have received from you.
> Licensing Information for all of our software can be found at:

> http://hera.eecs.berkeley.edu/~software/software.agree.html

> That should address all of your concerns. 

Dear Carol,

I still have some problems with the license on your web page.

First, is assumes that we (Debian) have to sign something for this 
license to be applicable.
Second, we have problems with item 1:

   1.The licensee agrees not to charge for the University of 
     California code itself. The licensee may, however,
     charge for additions, extensions, or support. 

As far as I understand, this means that we cannot sell this software 
as is. The Debian maintainers would like to package spice, and put it 
on ftp sites. However people make CDs out of the ftp archives, and 
sell them. This item prohibits them from doing so.
However, if I put a tiny patch in the sources (I had to do this to 
make it compile cleanly), I can claim that any charge at with the any 
CD is sold is for this patch (which I ask no royalties for), and I 
kind of still comply with the license but anyone is allowed to sell 
the modified software at any price.

Please don't misandurstand us. We don't want to steal UCB copyright 
or anything of the like. We aim at having a completely free operating 
system. Maybe reading the Debian web page ( http://www.debian.org ) 
will give you an idea of what we are. We have strict packaging 
policies for any software to be included in Debian, which can be 
browsed at:
   http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html#guidelines

I'd love to package spice, but this license doesn't allow spice to be 
part of the Debian distribution. License item #1 prohibits us from 
doing so. However we can circumvent item #1 by making a patch 
(derived work), but I believe is violates the license's spirit (and 
we won't do so).

Do you see any way we could reach an agreement ?

Thank you for your time,

Philippe Troin.

--- End Message ---
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