Re: A radical approach to rewriting the DFSG

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Glenn Maynard wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 09:14:23PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
>> > php4/copyright:     may "PHP" appear in their name, without prior
>> > written
> 
> I should have quoted this one in full:
> 
>   4. Products derived from this software may not be called "PHP", nor
>      may "PHP" appear in their name, without prior written permission
>      from group@php.net.  You may indicate that your software works in
>      conjunction with PHP by saying "Foo for PHP" instead of calling
>      it "PHP Foo" or "phpfoo"

The big problem is that Debian's PHP4 package *is* a product derived from
that software; just look at the diff, which contains significant changes. 
And Debian's package doesn't fall under the exception in the second
sentence, because it's called "php4".  If it were called, uh, "Debian for
PHP4", I suppose it might.

I don't think the PHP copyright holders thought about what their clause
actually meant under copyright law.  :-P  (Accordingly, I'd hope they'd be
willing to clarify what they meant -- or ideally fix their license -- but
they had better be contacted.)

-- 
There are none so blind as those who will not see.