Re: NEW ocaml licence proposal by upstream, will be part of the 3.08.1 release going into sarge.

[Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>]

Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 09:47:42PM +1000, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> > > If not, for example, this would seem to imply that software under the GPL
> > > with a special exception releasing John Smith from the requirement to release
> > > source would fail.
> > > 
> > > I think that's clearly silly, because the same effect can be achieved by
> > > giving that individual a separate license.  Additional licenses being granted
> > > only to certain people, independently from the one Debian sees, never make
> > > software less free.  So, it would seem silly to reject a single license
> > > that combines the effect of this licensing arrangement into one license,
> > > even if using two licenses would be cleaner.
> > 
> > The effect is different.  For a copyleft, incorporating "group X gets extra
> > rights" into the licence under which the work is distributed means that any
> > changes I make have to also be under that discriminatory licence -- that is,
> > the licence that Debian uses is discriminatory.
> 
> It's not different.
> 
> That example wasn't meant to say "... and you must also release John
> Smith from that requirement in all modifications".  (It was meant to
> be a trivial example of granting extra permissions.) I'll look at
> that, too, of course:
> 
> The dual-licensing equivalent of that would be one license that says
> "GPL, but everyone is released from the requirement to release
> source, and you must release everyone from this in your
> modifications"; and another that says "GPL, but John Smith is
> released from the requirement to release source, and you must
> release him from this requirement in your modifications".
> 
> The former is clearly free,

This is where I disagree.  Requiring modifiers to license changes as
free for everyone to make proprietary is not free.  I don't know of
any other licenses in main that have that requirement.

Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu