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Re: The Helixcommunity RPSL is not DFSG-free



On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Juhapekka Tolvanen wrote:
> Time to check it out again!

Quoting from https://www.helixcommunity.org/content/rpsl

  [2.1] (d) You must make Source Code of all Your Externally Deployed
  Modifications publicly available under the terms of this License,
  including the license grants set forth in Section 3 below, for as
  long as you Deploy the Covered Code or twelve (12) months from the
  date of initial Deployment, whichever is longer. You should
  preferably distribute the Source Code of Your Deployed Modifications
  electronically (e.g. download from a web site); and

  1.7 "Externally Deploy" means to Deploy the Covered Code in any way
  that may be accessed or used by anyone other than You, used to
  provide any services to anyone other than You, or used in any way to
  deliver any content to anyone other than You, whether the Covered
  Code is distributed to those parties, made available as an
  application intended for use over a computer network, or used to
  provide services or otherwise deliver content to anyone other than
  You.

This section has the same issues that the APSL has. IE, it fails the
two person variant of the desert island test. Why people keep
introducing this onerous term into their licenses is beyond me.

And then the neatoid "if you sue us for patent violations, you can't
use this software" section:

  11.1 Term and Termination. The term of this License is perpetual
  unless terminated as provided below. This License and the rights
  granted hereunder will terminate:

  (c) automatically without notice from Licensor if You, at any time
  during the term of this License, commence an action for patent
  infringement against Licensor (including by cross-claim or counter
  claim in a lawsuit);

There's been more than enough discussion about this particular problem
on -legal and the descrimination against different fields of endeavor
that it entails.

As a parting note, it is troubling that they call a license version
1.0, and then have a revision date associated with it. The RPSL should
really be refered to as RPSL version 1.0 as of 10/28/2002 or some
such. [Or they should incrememnt the version numbers when they change
something.]


Don Armstrong

-- 
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot

http://www.donarmstrong.com
http://www.anylevel.com
http://rzlab.ucr.edu

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