Re: #144984

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Colin Walters <walters@debian.org>

> What do people think about the status of #144984?  My first thought was
> to agree with the submitter that it's non-free.

I agree, too. (Just for the record, the bug reads:

| The htp Copyright in contained in the Distribution section of file
| usr/share/doc/htp/ref/intro.htm says:
|
|   No charge can be incurred for the redistribution of this utility beyond
|   material costs.
|
| IMHO this violates #1 of the DFSG since it restricts sale of software. -

> On the other hand, the GPL says:

>   You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
>   you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

> which is generally interpeted to mean "you can charge whatever you want
> for distributing binaries", correct?

Yes. The GPL does not say anything about how large the fee must be.
"For the physical act of transferring a copy" restricts which general
schemes for computing the fee are allowed - for example, it is not
allowed to charge a fee whose size depends on what the recipient does
with the copy he received.

> Then again, the htp license does say "material costs", which narrows it
> down somewhat.

Quite. The most literal reading of that clause would be that it
forbids distribution for a profit. Thus it is non-free.

-- 
Henning Makholm          "NB! Benbrud er et symptom, ikke en sygdom. Hvis du
                   har brækket benet bør du gå til lægen for at få fastslået
       årsagen. Brug aldrig Herbalit<tm> mod benbrud uden lægens anvisning."


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