Re: Oracle 8i for Linux License Humor

[Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>]

Brian Ristuccia <brianr@osiris.978.org> wrote:
> You don't need to own the copyright to negotiate a license with the
> copyright holder. I always thought software licenses were like any other
> contract -- if either party wants to make changes to the contract, they do
> so in ink and then initial. If the other party agrees, they can sign too (or
> provide the service, goods, etc). If they don't agree, then they can refuse
> to sign or provide service/goods and no contract is made.

Sure, but a contract involves some kind of exchange.

If Oracle had expressed that distributing their software is a 
valuable service for them there would be no problem.  As it is,
while you might be onto something that would let you distribute
it under the license you proposed, there's also a real chance
that you couldn't.

Anyways, this doesn't really matter for Debian, because we generally
try to not distribute software, even if we're legally entitled, if the
author doesn't want us to.  [And if it's ambiguous we like to get
the author to get involved in clearing up the ambiguity.]

-- 
Raul