Re: Interesting Licensing Issue -- Crafty
On Mon, May 03, 1999 at 02:27:13PM -0500, Paul Serice wrote:
>
> Can Dr. Hyatt, the original author of Crafty, restrict use of the
> program such that he is the only person who can enter the original
> program into a chess competition and still have a license that is Debian
> free?
No.
> Can Dr. Hyatt forbid any derived works from being entered into a chess
> competition and still be Debian free?
No.
> My sense of "right" tells me that Professor Hyatt's restrictions are
> fair and reasonable.
Sure it is. A fair and reasonable license can still be non-free.
> 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
>
> "The license must not discriminate against any person or group of
> persons."
>
> I believe this is provision is also met. First, no one to whom Crafty
> is distributed can enter the program into a tournament.
But the original author can. This gives the author a freedom of relevance
only to himself. I say "of relevance" because I think it is relevant to
section 6.
> Second, this restriction is simply in place to prevent unethical persons
> from defrauding the chess tournaments, and I have to believe the DFSG
> allows licenses that prohibit fraud.
The DFSG does not define ethic. The DFSG does not define fraud.
> 6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
>
> "The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the
> program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not
> restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being
> used for genetic research."
>
> I'm just including this paragraph so I can so that it is off point. A
> chess tournament is not a "field of endeavor." If someone would like to
> argue that a chess tournament is a field of endeavor then I would argue
> that Crafty passes muster for the same reasons it passes muster under
> paragraph 5 above.
I think you are completely wrong here. Indeed, I get the impression that you
are arguing this way because you like to see crafty remaining in main. But
your interpretation is completely unsubstantiated. First, yes, a chess
contest IS a field of endeavour. Second, point 5 and 6 are quite different,
and I would like to hear how you apply the reasons in 5 on this point.
If using a derived work on the same chess contest is unappealing, the
conditions on the contest should be changed, not the software license. A
license is almost never a good moral playground (remember the "microsoft" or
"south africa police" clauses).
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org finger brinkmd@
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org master.debian.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de for public PGP Key
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/ PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
Reply to: