Re: License question

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Michael Meskes <meskes@debian.org>

> I'm not really used to reading english language licences but I have been
> asked if JasPer (http://www.ece.uvic.ca/~mdadams/jasper/) would be able
> to make it into Debian. Since I'm sure someone of you knows much better
> than I do, is this licence free enough or isn't it?

There are a couple of "you may not sue us over patents that may be
violated in the code" clauses that look fishy but could probably be
argued around. However, this is a complete showstopper:

| F.  This software is for use only in hardware or software products
| that are compliant with ISO/IEC 15444-1 (i.e., JPEG-2000 Part 1).
| No license or right to this Software is granted for products that do
| not comply with ISO/IEC 15444-1.  The JPEG-2000 Part 1 standard can
| be purchased from the ISO.

This prevents modifying and distributing the code for experiments with
other data formats. Thus non-free.

-- 
Henning Makholm                            "I, madam, am the Archchancellor!
                                       And I happen to run this University!"