Re: ocaml, QPL and the DFSG : QPL 3b argumentation.

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2004 at 11:05:09AM -0400, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
> Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr> writes:
> 
> > If they did not pick on this, there is sane reason to say this is
> > ok.
> 
> I don't think that is a safe assumption to make in the general case,
> and I know it doesn't apply here.
> 
> Immutable notices have been rejected from Debian before, for this same reason.

So propose something reasonable with as little as possible change of wording.
> 
> > We should concentrate on the real problems, namely the clause of
> > venue and QPL 6c, which i have ground to believe will be no problem
> > for upstream anymore, altough i have no official answer yet, and QPL
> > 3b, which still remains problematic.
> 
> Does that actually mean QPL 6 will be removed from the OCaml license?
> Oh Frabjuous Day!
> 
> Or just QPL 6c?  That would not be frabjuous, but I still might
> callay.

The jury is still out, but there is chance that it may move in the good
direction. Now, i think removing just QPL 6c is better than removing all of
QPL 6, since QPL 6a+b allow you to distributed linked work under any free
licence, while you would have to QPL it under QPL3 only.

> >> My assumption is that they wanted to ban certain modifications of
> >> their work, and were more concerned about maximizing credit than
> >> writing free software.
> >
> > They just wanted to make sure someone didn't remove the copyright notice, or
> > alter it to remove older contributors. Adding new contributors should be
> > permitted, but that is the extent of it. 
> 
> Yes, but a ban on removing all and any copyright notices is not Free.
> It's fine for an author to require that there *be* a copyright notice,
> but forbidding translation or addition is not Free.

So, find a wording saying that you can only add or translate or something
such.

> Requiring a specific dialog box isn't either -- it doesn't translate
> to systems without a GUI.  Requiring specific text output also isn't
> free, as it doesn't work with non-interactive or embedded systems.

What has that to do with it here ? 

Friendly,

Sven Luther