Advice on BSD license with nuclear clause
Hello,
I am the author of a program called IPMItool[1] and I am working with
Noèl Köthe to get it packaged for Debian. It is released under the Sun
BSD license, which looks like your typical Revised BSD with the addition
of a clause concerning use of the software in nuclear facilities. The
full license[2] text follows:
Copyright (c) 2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
Redistribution of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistribution in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or the names of
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
from this software without specific prior written permission.
This software is provided "AS IS," without a warranty of any kind.
ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. ("SUN") AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING
OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS DERIVATIVES. IN NO EVENT WILL
SUN OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT OR DATA,
OR FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
PUNITIVE DAMAGES, HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF
LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF SUN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES.
You acknowledge that this software is not designed
or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or
maintenance of any nuclear facility.
The last paragraph is the one in question. I didn't write it, but I do
agree with the premise: I did not design this for nuclear facility use,
nor would I recommend it be used there. However, is it possible that
this clause violates the DFSG, particularly item 6 relating to
Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor? To me it reads more like a
disclaimer of warranty for the software than any restriction on its use,
but I would like the opinion of this list.
It's not the first time this particular license has been discussed on
debian-legal[3] but there is a subtle yet significant difference between
the two. The original license read:
You acknowledge that Software is not designed, licensed or
intended for use in the design, construction, operation or
maintenance of any nuclear facility.
At the time it was the use of the word "licensed" that caused concern,
but that word is not present in my version. Is the removal of this word
sufficient to satisfy the requirements DFSG? If there are concerns I
will take them back to our legal department and see what can be done.
(as I was preparing to send this I see this exact discussion has come up
again this morning...)
Thanks,
-duncan
[1] http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net
[2] http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net/LICENSE
[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/05/msg00632.html
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