Re: libecw

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Miriam Ruiz <little_miry@yahoo.es>

> I'm not sure if it's license (
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=293346 ) can be considered
> free enough to be in main:

[...]

> ii)	When modifications to the Software are released under this license, a
> non-exclusive royalty-free right is granted to the initial 
> developer of the Software to distribute your modification in future versions
> of the Software provided such versions remain available under 
> these terms in addition to any other license(s) of the initial developer. 

This is controversial at best.

> iii)	You are not permitted to change the ECW file format.

This, however, directly kills DFSG-freedom as well as GPL compatibility.

If the library is actually linked with GPL code, as the authors seem
to expect, the entire think becomes legally undistributable even in
non-free.

-- 
Henning Makholm                               "Hi! I'm an Ellen Jamesian. Do
                                        you know what an Ellen Jamesian is?"