Re: Bug#551026: ITP: xcite -- exciting cite utility for Emacsen
[TANIGUCHI Takaki]
> * "free software" satisfies
> "freely usable, freely (re-)distributable
> without any charge for itself, freely modifiable unless the
> original author(=me)'s copyrights are infringed or neglected,
> absolutely not responsible to any result from itself. "
"([R]e-)distributable without any charge for itself" implies, or may
imply, that I cannot put xcite on a CD with other Debian software and
sell the CD for profit. The author possibly intended that I can, but
the statement is too ambiguous.
The author also does not give permission to distribute modified
versions. You might think this is implied ... but not necessarily.
In particular this was a problem with Pine; the license looked as
though perhaps we could distribute modified versions, but upstream
didn't think they had said that.
"[U]nless the author(=me)'s copyrights are infringed" makes the clause
fairly meaningless, because the whole point of a copyright license is
to grant rights that would otherwise infringe the author's copyrights.
It is a bit like saying "You may steal things from stores except where
prohibited by law".
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