Licensing woes
Hi!
I've found a program that I would like to package for Debian, but the
license to it was too restrictive. Now the author has changed the
license, to one derived from the Artistic license, but I would like to
check here whether it is free enough, since I'm a bit concerned about
point 6 of the license.
Please see the attached file.
(Please Cc: me, I do not subscribe to this list, yet)
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peter - http://www.softwolves.pp.se/
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Preamble
The intent of this document is to state the conditions under which a
Package may be copied, such that the Copyright Holder maintains some
control over the development of the package, while giving the users of
the package the right to use and distribute the Package in a more-or-less
customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable modifications.
Definitions:
"Package" refers to the collection of files distributed by the
Copyright Holder, and derivatives of that collection of files
created through textual modification.
"Standard Version" refers to such a Package if it has not been
modified, or has been modified in accordance with the wishes
of the Copyright Holder.
"Copyright Holder" is whoever is named in the copyright or
copyrights for the package.
"You" is you, if you're thinking about copying or distributing
this Package.
"Reasonable copying fee" is whatever you can justify on the
basis of media cost, duplication charges, time of people involved,
and so on. (You will not be required to justify it to the
Copyright Holder, but only to the computing community at large
as a market that must bear the fee.)
"Freely Available" means that no fee is charged for the item
itself, though there may be fees involved in handling the item.
It also means that recipients of the item may redistribute it
under the same conditions they received it.
1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
Standard Version of this Package without restriction, provided that you
duplicate all of the original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.
2. You may apply bug fixes, portability fixes and other modifications
derived from the Copyright Holder. A Package modified in such a way shall
still be considered the Standard Version.
3. You may otherwise modify your copy of this Package in any way, provided
that you insert a prominent notice in each changed file stating how and
when you changed that file, and provided that you do at least ONE of the
following:
a) allow the Copyright Holder to include your modifications in the
Standard Version of the Package.
b) use the modified Package only within your corporation or organization.
c) rename any non-standard executables so the names do not conflict
with standard executables, which must also be provided, and provide
a separate manual page for each non-standard executable that clearly
documents how it differs from the Standard Version.
d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright Holder.
4. You may distribute the programs of this Package in object code or
executable form, provided that you do at least ONE of the following:
a) distribute a Standard Version of the executables and library files,
together with instructions (in the manual page or equivalent) on where
to get the Standard Version.
b) accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of
the Package with your modifications.
c) accompany any non-standard executables with their corresponding
Standard Version executables, giving the non-standard executables
non-standard names, and clearly documenting the differences in manual
pages (or equivalent), together with instructions on where to get
the Standard Version.
d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright Holder.
5. You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any distribution of this
Package. You may NOT charge any fee for support of this Package.
You may NOT charge a fee for this Package itself. However, you may
distribute this Package in an aggregate with other (possibly commercial)
programs provided that you do not advertise this Package as a product
of your own and fulfill all other requirements of this license regarding
this Package.
6. The application cannot be used for any commercial purpose other
than specified explicitly in this license. No commercial application
can be derived from source code of the Package without a specific
written permission from the Copyright Holder. A reference is expected
if a substantial part of the source code is used in a free application.
7. Any subroutines supplied by you and linked into this Package shall
not be considered part of this Package.
8. The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
9. THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
The End
==================================================================
P.S. For release 1.1.1, I decided to have the license more flexible
and ... more professional, as a result of email-s from ibiblio Linux
archive (Northern Carolina, USA) and Peter Karlsson (Sweden). As you
probably noticed, this is only a slightly modified "Artistic License".
Now you are free in distributing the application, provided that you
do not charge for the application itself and its maintenance. Also,
the requirements on modification are not as strict as before.
I expect that many developers will find my 'accomodations' reasonable.
Your comments are welcomed. Michael.
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