Re: Nedit 5.0 license questions
On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, Christian Schwarz wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Erik Andersen wrote:
> >
> > > (This email refers to both
> > > http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html#guidelines and
> > > and ftp://ftp.fnal.gov/pub/nedit/v5_0/README )
> > >
> > > The Nedit 5.0 license has a couple of phrases that, depending on
> > > interpretation, could force it stay in the non-free part of Debian, or
> > > allow it to move to the main distribution.
> > >
> > > First, the license contains the phrase "Any distribution of the
> > > software available from this server shall be at no charge, except for
> > > nominal media and distribution costs." The word "nominal" could be
> > > interpreted to mean "whatever you can justify on the basis of media
> > > cost, duplication charges, time of people involved, and so on."
> > > (quoted from the Artistic license). If we interpret the license this
> > > way, then this phrase is in compliance with DFSG #1 -- Free
> > > Redistribution. It would be nice to have a clearer definition of
> > > what "nominal media and distribution costs." is supposed to mean.
> >
> > In my interpretation, `at no charge, except for nominal media and
> > distribution costs' means that one can not make profit out of
> > _distributing_ the package (not if the package itself). This is a
> > violation of DFSG #1: `The license may not require a royalty or
> > other fee for such sale.'
>
> The sentence you refer to in the end of the paragraph above refers to the
> fact that the seller may not be charged a royalty or fee for permision to
> sell the media referenced previously. (this is similar to other clauses
> that say ", without fee," and have been interpreted to refer to
> "distribution license fee".
Sorry, but I don't get your point. I was referring to the sentence
``Any distribution [...] shall be at no charge, except for
nominal media and distribution costs.''
This sounds to me (I'm not a native English speaker) that I can't make
profit our of distribution this program. This is a violation of the DFSG.
> > > The other phrase that is difficult to interpret is the phrase: "To
> > > obtain a license to commercialize any of the software programs
> > > available from this server, contact FNAL's Office of Research and
> > > Technology Applications...".
> >
> > That's a tough one. I suggest you contact them about whether they are
> > referring to `commercial products incorporating NEdit' or `commercial
> > products including NEdit'.
> >
> While I agree that use of such language complicates the interpretation of
> the license, I interpret this to mean that a "commercial distribution
> license" is available. The idea being, if you are going to sell the
> software (and not just your service) then you probably owe the author a
> royalty. We have several packages with licenses that speak to alternate,
> commercial, license availability. I'm not real comfortable with these
> ideas as they portray "free" ownership as being less valuable than "fee"
> ownership.
>
> > (I think someone selling a Debian CD-ROM for profit sells a product
> > including NEdit but he/she doesn't sell NEdit or a derived product.)
> >
> I make a profit on almost every CD I sell. I do so my charging a higher
> price for the distribution of the CD than it costs me to produce. I do so
> by charging the "going rate" for such a commodity. It appears that I don't
> violate either the Artistic License, or the one sited for Nedit, in doing
> so.
But by selling CDs you `commercialize' NEdit, namely by creating a
commercial product (your CD) which includes NEdit. This isn't allowed by
the license without contacting them (and probably signing a contract).
> > Perhaps this doesn't matter at all, since the part above already fails the
> > DFSG. Sorry.
> >
> Don't be so hasty ;-)
Ok :-)
Cheers,
Chris
-- Christian Schwarz
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schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
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