Re: ITP: xengine
Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute without charge t
>his
> > software, documentation, images, etc. is granted,
..
>*sigh*. This comes up about once a week now. The statement above,
>and similar, are generally interpreted that there is no charge to
>distribute it, not that you must not charge for it.
>
>For instance, the following copyright applies to gxditview in groff,
>which is in main:
>
> * Copyright 1991 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> *
> * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and i
>ts
> * documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided tha
>t
Sorry, these are different. In the first example, `without charge' modifies
`distribute' (or possibly `copy, modify and distribute'). In the second
example `without fee' modifies `Permission ... is ... granted'. It may be
that the author of xengine's licence doesn't know how to write clear
English and meant to grant permission without charge, but that isn't what
he has actually written.
Since there are many licences which do not allow commercial exploitation,
this is not a distinction that can be ignored. If xengine is meant to be
DFSG free, the licence needs modifying. As it stands, the licence does not
permit anyone to charge for a CD which includes xengine.
===
I see from Atsuhito Kohda's message that it is indeed meant to be DFSG free.
Please get the author to change the licence to this:
Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software,
documentation, images, etc. is granted without charge, provided that
this comment and the author's name is retained. The author assumes no
responsibility for lost sleep as a consequence of use of this software.
or else use the BSD licence, which has exactly the same effect and has the
advantage of being well understood.
--
Oliver Elphick Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1
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