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Re: IBM Public License (again)



MJ Ray <mjr@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> On 2004-05-12 22:59:18 +0100 Frank Lichtenheld <djpig@debian.org> wrote:
> 
> > I just wanted to package a piece of software and saw that it is licensed
> > under the IBM Public License[1] (IPL).
> 
> Normally, you should include the licence text.
> 
> > Since the license included some suspicios clauses I searched the list
> > archives about it. The findings were confusing:
> > - There are many discussions (e.g. [2], [3]) about the patent
> >   clause (§7, paragraph 2) but no consensus on whether it is non-free or not.
> 
> To me, it seems clearly non-free because it terminates if there is
> legal action against IBM about patents "applicable to" some other
> software. Regardless of what I think about software patents (I hate
> them), why should use of this software affect independent software I
> may release? We don't allow licences that try to force disclosure,
> why should we allow ones that try to force accepting patent
> infringment by IBM?
> 
> It's a bit tricky to map this exactly onto the DFSG, but it seems a
> "I can't believe this is free software" candidate to me.

It only terminates a patent license, not a copyright license.  That
just makes the license effectively mute about patents (which is true
of most licenses we look at).  Patents were also discussed for an
Intel license [1].

Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/02/msg00032.html



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