Re: Is the Nokia Open Source License DFSG compliant?
On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 19:54, Kevin Rosenberg wrote:
> I believe this license is DFSG compliant, Sections 3.1 and 3.2 are
> similar to some GPL sections. I wonder about section 3.6 as well.
>
> Thanks in advance for looking at this lengthy license.
I see a problem. Nokia has explicitly excluded royalty-free patent
grants for many forms of derived works (refer 2.1(d)):
> 2. SOURCE CODE LICENSE.
> 2.1 Nokia Grant.
> Subject to the terms of this License, Nokia hereby grants You a world-wide,
> royalty-free, non-exclusive license, subject to third party intellectual
> property claims:
> a) under copyrights Licensable by Nokia to use, reproduce, modify, display,
> perform, sublicense and distribute the Original Software (or portions thereof)
> with or without Modifications, and/or as part of a Larger Work;
> b) and under Patents Claims necessarily infringed by the making, using or
> selling of Original Software, to make, have made, use, practice, sell, and
> offer for sale, and/or otherwise dispose of the Original Software (or portions
> thereof).
> c) The licenses granted in this Section 2.1(a) and (b) are effective on the
> date Nokia first distributes Original Software under the terms of this
> License.
> d) Notwithstanding Section 2.1(b) above, no patent license is granted: 1) for
> code that You delete from the Original Software; 2) separate from the Original
> Software; or 3) for infringements caused by: i) the modification of the
> Original Software or ii) the combination of the Original Software with other
> software or devices.
Notwithstanding means in spite of. So in spite of what you just read in
2.1(b), if you separate code from the Original Software, modify the
Original Software or combine the Original Software with other software
you no longer have a patent licence.
Nokia will almost certainly have multiple software patents covering the
Original Software: <http://swpat.ffii.org/players/nokia/index.en.html>
This is an exercise in smoke and mirrors. You think you've been granted
useful rights to distribute modified software when it turns out you
can't exercise those rights without first obtaining a patent licence
from Nokia.
Regards,
Adam
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