the new IglooFTP license
[To: programmers listed as IglooFTP contributors]
[Cc: to debian-legal mailing list]
Hello, sorry for bothering you about what you might consider a
quite futile issue.
As you might know, Jean-Marc Jacquet released a new 'PRO' version of
his ftp software IglooFTP. The main point is that not only it has
a non-free license, but sources aren't even distributed any more:
http://www.littleigloo.org/iglooftp.php3
I also noticed that Jean-Marc has removed all traces of the GPLed
0.6.1 release from his website; the download section at
http://www.littleigloo.org/softwares_fr.html#IGLOOFTP leads to
broken links. But the GPLed 0.6.1 version still exists; it is in
the source tree of the Debian distribution, for instance.
Moreover, Jean-Marc re-released 0.6.1 under the Artistic license,
which I don't know if he is allowed to do without changing the
version number.
Meanwhile, he implemented Igor's patch for VMS to one of those
two 0.6.1 versions.
Although I do not use IglooFTP very often, I am quite disappointed
by this license change because:
* I don't understand why Jean-Marc decided to make IglooFTP non-free
if he only intends to provide email support. Anyone knowing the
former versions' source code and/or having used IglooFTP as well
might do the same.
* this new version of IglooFTP won't be available for the Debian
distribution.
* the new version of IglooFTP crashes on my computer. There is no
way I can fix it without having the source code. I will have to
PAY for the registered version to be able to get support for a
crash-free version !
So, what I intend to do is to ask Jean-Marc why he released his
program under a non-free license, and whether he agrees to
change his mind.
Before that, I would like to know:
- was Jean-Marc allowed to release IglooFTP 0.6.1 under the GPL,
and later release the very same version under a different license ?
- what license was Igor's patch released under ?
- did the other contributors provide patches or just ideas ? It
they were patches, what license were they released under ?
- was Jean-Marc allowed to use those patches in the non-free version
of IglooFTP ?
Thanks a lot for your information,
Sam.
--
Samuel Hocevar <sam@via.ecp.fr> - http://www.via.ecp.fr/~sam/
echo "what is the universe"|tr "a-z " 0-7-0-729|sed 's/9.//g;s/-/+/'|bc
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