Licensing Question
A European software vendor has approached us regarding their desire to
include their product in our distribution. I have already informed them of
our main/contrib/non-free heirarchy, and what requirements are set for each.
I also pointed out that we don't technically distribute the "non-free" part
of the distribution, and that is really only there for the convenience of
our users.
They would like to get into "main", and have expressed some interest in
doing something like Ghostscript, where they would "free" their old version
when a new release was made.
The only concern they have is over patented technology in their product. I
don't know from their e-mail if they are referring to their own technology,
or to technology they license from someone else.
I was wondering if anyone on this list had experience dealing with these
types of issues, and what (if any) solutions were available. I can see a
few alternatives:
1. The thing just has to go in non-free because they can't release source
for everything.
2. If the "patented" stuff is a subset of the overall program, they could
free the baseline system and do a non-free package for the add-ons (similar
to Sendmail's free/proprietary versions).
3. They free everything and it goes in main.
Can anyone else offer a case study or other that could be used as a model?
I think they want to be able to charge for a "commercial" version, while
providing an open version as well. In fact, they are happy to provide a
completely functional version for non-commercial use as well (i.e.,
completely redistributable, but license restrictions on who can use it for
free). Obviously these versions would be "non-free".
Thanks,
-Brent
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