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

[Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu>]

Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

> Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> In any case, a more direct answer is that your original question about
>> the difference between grants of permissions and freedoms is
>> irrelevant.  I was and am talking about the difference between a grant
>> of extra permissions and a compelled grant of extra permissions, and
>> objecting to the compulsion as non-free.
>
> No, I really am lost here. Is your argument:
>
> a) compulsion of provision of freedoms (as in the GPL, for instance) is
> non-free, or
>
> b) compulsion of provision one set of freedoms to some people and a
> different set to others is non-free

Neither.  Or at least, a particular subset of b.  Let's see if I can
put it all into one phrase:

c) compulsion of provision of permissions in excess of minimal freedom
   which were not possessed by the modifier is non-free.

Yeesh, that's more complex than I'd like.  But that's because it's
trying to scope the non-freedom as tightly as possible.  So the GPL's
requirement that I provide source when distributing, even if I don't
have the source, is not non-free -- providing the source is part of
giving minimal freedom to the recipient.  And I had the source, or an
opportunity to get it, anyway.

But a requirement that I provide permissions over-and-above the
freedoms I had is non-free.

> If the first is free, I have difficulty in seeing how the second is
> non-free (providing, of course, that either set of freedoms in option b
> would be free on its own)

The critical difference is whether I had the permissions or not.  I
see that distinction very clearly in DFSG 3: I must be able to
distribute modifications under the same license I received.  If I
*have* to relax certain conditions, then I can't do so.

For example, I think it would be just fine (in terms of DFSG 3) for
the QPL to require a permissive grant like that if it also gave one to
modifiers.

-Brian

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu