Re: ckermit: license advice
On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 01:26:33AM +0000, Henning Makholm wrote:
> Scripsit Ian Beckwith <ianb@nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
>
> > > (A) The C-Kermit software, in source and/or binary form, may be
> > > included WITHOUT EXPLICIT LICENSE in distributions of OPERATING
> > > SYSTEMS that have OSI (Open Source Initiative, www.opensource.org)
> > > approved licenses, even if non-Open-Source applications (but not
> > > operating systems) are included in the same distribution.
>
> > Another possible problem is the reference to Open Source Initiative
> > approved licenses.
>
> Yes, it contaminates other software. DFSG #9.
>
> > > The intention is to allow C-Kermit to be distributed with "free"
> > > operating systems such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, The Hurd,
> > > etc, ...
>
> > I would think that amply covers debian,
>
> Yes, but it is narrow enough to be (as bad as) "specific to Debian".
>
> > Are there any other problems with the license?
>
> There doesn't seem to be any permission to distribute it *without*
> bundling with any operating system at all.
Ah. There are more problems than I thought.
Thanks, I'll digest this and explain it to upstream.
It may be worth taking a different approach.
The basic problem is that the kermit project depends on license
revenue (mostly, I think, from the large unix vendors) for funding.
They want to make kermit as free as possible without jeopardising
that revenue.
Are there any similar projects/companies out there with the same sort
of business model that release software with DFSG-compliant licenses?
It appears the most common models are either charging for support or
crippling the free version. The kermit project already provides free
support to everyone, so either of these options would be a net loss.
I'm starting to suspect the two goals are incompatible, but hopefully
someone else knows better.
Thanks,
Ian.
PS I am nothing to do with the kermit project, I'm just a random
wannabe-DD who is adopting ckermit.
--
Ian Beckwith - ianb@nessie.mcc.ac.uk - http://nessie.mcc.ac.uk/~ianb/
GPG fingerprint: AF6C C0F1 1E74 424B BCD5 4814 40EC C154 A8BA C1EA
Listening to: In the Nursery - Duality - Corruption
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