Re: Integrity of Source Code

[Samuel Hocevar <sam@zoy.org>]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2000, Wesley W. Terpstra wrote:

> The program by default pops up a splash saying 'This is the official version
> of X obtainable in source and binary form from Y' - justs popups up for 3
> seconds or something not to obnoxious.
> 
> If the source code (not build parameters) are changed you are required to
> have the message popup with 'This is an UNOFFICIAL version of X. The
> official version can be obtained from Y.' - again for ~3 seconds.

   I think this breaks the DFSG, because it simply prevents to remove
the popup code.

> Further, we have no intention of inhibitting the free flow of modified
> version of the source or binaries, we merely want the user of derived works
> to be made aware that this is no longer a version approved by us although it
> is based off of work by us.
>  [...]
> We want this warning prominently visible b/c unless the user knows to look
> they are not going to root through help files and documentation to see if
> the program has been modified. And of course, if they know to look, they
> probably know the program has been modified.
>  [...]
> The reason for wanting this is because the company I work at does not want
> our product to have the quality impared and redistributed without the user
> knowing about it. 

   One solution I may suggest is to require any modified version to have
a fully different name. The Apache project is using such a license for
their webserver:

 * 5. Products derived from this software may not be called "Apache"
 *    nor may "Apache" appear in their names without prior written
 *    permission of the Apache Group.

   You might find this solution acceptable, since it is DFSG compatible.

Regards,
Sam.
-- 
Samuel Hocevar <sam@zoy.org> <http://sam.zoy.org/>
for DVDs in Linux screw the MPAA and ; do dig $DVDs.z.zoy.org ; done | \
      perl -ne 's/\.//g; print pack("H224",$1) if(/^x([^z]*)/)' | gunzip