Re: OSD && DFSG convergence
On 20030126T125505-0500, Russell Nelson wrote:
> One is that software must comply with the DFSG to be a
> part of Debian, and yet the DFSG does not admit the possibility of
> public-domain unlicensed software.
As far as I know, public-domain software does not exist. The only way
for a program to enter the public domain would be for it to be so old
that its author has been dead for 70 years. There was no software 70
years ago.
The common phrase "this program is in the public domain" is in my
experience often misapplied by authors (they mean something else than "I
revoke all my rights to this work"). In the cases where it is really
what they mean, I would consider it a license, in which case DFSG does
apply.
I am not a lawyer, though. If you have a lawyer's opinion this, I'd
like to hear it.
> Another problem is that the DFSG does not prohibit a license from
> requiring a specific form of affirmative assent known as click-wrap.
I have a vague memory of such licenses been deemed non-DFSG-compliant in
the past, but I don't have references.
--
Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, FM (MSc) * http://www.iki.fi/gaia/ * gaia@iki.fi
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