DFSG Draft #8
I receieved a lot of good comments from the last draft. The biggest single
comment revolved around the format. In order to keep Debian's documentation
uniform, I was using Debiandoc-sgml to write the drafts in. This also allowed
for dynamic formatting of paragraphs and easy converstion to different formats
such as text, HTML and postscript. However, The format has changed. Most of
the section headers were removed. The Restrictions moved up to be with the
Freedoms.
I also found two different "Free Software" camps out there. There are some who
believe that any restriction imposed by the author is a restriction to freedom.
To these people, all the licenses aren't "ideal" but the BSD would probably be
the closest (minus the advertisting clause would be better). The other camp
feel that all existing software should do what it can to force other software
to have the same level of freedom. These are the people who believe the GPL
is "perfect". I just thought that was interesting. Different aspects of the
Draft ran along with both groups. This draft is more inline with the second
group.
Ok, I'd like some comments on the formatting. I didn't mess with the wording
much this time but I still like comments on that, also.
- Darren
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Debian Free Software Guidelines
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Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>
Darren Benham <gecko@debian.org>
draft version 2.8.4 28 February 1999
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Copyright Notice
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copyright ©1999 Anthony Towns & Darren Benham
This document is free software; you may redistribute it verbatim in
any format. You may modify this document and redistribute it in any
form so long as you change the title of this document. You may use
parts of this document for any purpose.
This is distributed _without any warranty_; without even the implied
warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
This document, in it's source form, exists in DebianDoc format.
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1. Introduction
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The Debian Free Software Guidelines define what it means to the Debian
Project for software to be free. Software that follows these
guidelines is termed "DFSG-free".
_Application_ These guidelines are intended to be applied to software
in any form. These guidelines take into account only the words of the
license. While local laws may affect the license and its freedoms,
they are not relevant to determining "DFSG-free."
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2. Freedoms
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1. _Use_: Anyone must be allowed to use the software in any way
without obligation.
2. _Source Code_: Source code must be freely available if it exists.
Source code refers to the form used by the author to make changes
to the software.
3. _Distribution_ Anyone must be able to give away or sell copies of
the software and sources without paying a fee or royalty.
However, nobody can be required to distribute the software. This
includes modified or derived work.
* _Restrictions on charges_ (discouraged): The license may
restrict the amount charged for the software itself if
reasonable distribution fees are allowed. It may not place
restrictions on either fees charged for other software in a
distribution or the cost of a distribution as a whole.
* _Availability of source code_: The license may require that
distributors make a reasonable effort to provide source code
of versions of the software they distribute.
4. _Modification & Derivation_: Anyone must be allowed to modify the
software or use parts of the software in their own work.
* _Notices of Authorship_: The license may require the
copyright, license, and any associated disclaimers be
prominently displayed in the modified software or any
derived software. The license may require such notices to be
displayed: (in order of preference)
* wherever the modified/derived software displays
copyrights
* in the source code or documentation
* during execution of interactive software
* in advertising materials (discouraged)
* _Misrepresentation of Authors_: The license may restrict the
use of names and trademarks of the copyright holders in
association with modifications of the original software.
* _License of Derived Works_: The license may impose license
requirements on modified and derived software as long as the
result still meets these guidelines.
The license may impose license restrictions on the third
party components (such as libraries) necessary to compile
the software as long as the restrictions are compatible with
the original license.
The license may not impose restrictions on third-party
software that merely resides on the same system or
distribution as the licensed software.
* _Integrity of the Original Work_ The license may use any of
the following methods to ensure the integrity of the
original work:
* _Change log_ A summary of modifications made to the
software may be required in the source code and
documentation accompanying the modified software.
* _Versioning and Renaming_ Modified software may be
required to be distributed with a version number or
name different from the official release.
* _Concurrent Installation_ (discouraged) Modified
software may be required to be able to exist on the
same system as the official release of the software.
* _Original source_ (discouraged) Anyone distributing
modified software may be required include the original
source code.
* _Patch clause_ (discouraged) Source level modifications
may be required to be distributed as the original
source with a list of differences.
5. _Termination of License_ The license must remain valid until the
licensee terminates it or violates the terms of the license.
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3. Notes
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1. _Discouraged_
By discouraged, we mean this is allowed but discourage and
disliked. These items may be removed in future versions. Also,
software without discouraged clauses is recommended over software
that has licenses with such clauses.
2. _Weaker Restrictions_
The license have less restrictive versions of the restrictions
listed here.
3. _Non-binding Requests_
The license may make any number of non-binding requests. These
should be clearly separated from the binding section of the
license.
4. _Example Licenses_
As examples, Debian consider the following licenses DFSG-free:
* the MIT/X Consortium License
* the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL)
* the GNU Library General Public License v2 (LGPL)
* the Artistic License ( -- Restrictions on Charges)
* the BSD License ( -- Advertising clause)
* the Mozilla Public License v1.0 (MPL) ( -- Patch clause)
* the Q Public License v0.92 (QPL) ( -- Patch clause)
_This list is a list of possibilities. Before the document would
be released, the list would be modified to mention the licenses
that truly do fit_
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Debian Free Software Guidelines
Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>
Darren Benham <gecko@debian.org>
draft version 2.9.0 28 February 1999
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