On Tue, Apr 01, 2003 at 04:15:33PM +0200, Torsten Werner wrote:
> Hello,
>
> There's a new PDFlib lite. The license is published at
> http://www.pdflib.com/purchase/license-lite.html . Do you think it is
> DFSG free? It seems to be free for any opensource project. There are
> restrictions for non OSS use of course. Do you agree?
The URL is to a "non-binding summary" (there's a "binding summary"?
yeesh) of the license.
Here's a link the whole license.
http://www.pdflib.com/pdffiles/PDFlib-Lite-License.pdf
But just looking at the summary I can tell you there are problems.
Royalty-free use
* PDFlib Lite can be used for free if you are an open source
developer. This means that you must disclose the full source code
of your project, and make it available under an OSI-approved open
source license (see www.opensource.org). Note that "full source
code" includes all components of the project, not only those which
are directly attached to PDFlib Lite.
* PDFlib Lite can be used for free if you are a private user.
* PDFlib Lite can be used for free if you are a research user.
All other uses not mentioned here require a commercial license.
Restrictions on use violate DFSG 5 or 6; this one violates both, arguably,
based on what you do and who you are.
This license is not DFSG-free in my opinion.
--
G. Branden Robinson |
Debian GNU/Linux | Please do not look directly into
branden@debian.org | laser with remaining eye.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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