Bas Wijnen wrote:
However, when starting irrecord, it says: IMPORTANT: The license of the config files created by this program requires that you send them to the author. If you don't like this license exit this program now by pressing Ctrl-C! Otherwise press RETURN. End quote. I do not expect this license to be compatible with the GPL. It doesn't sound very free to me either. Then again, the only problem I see with the DFSG is DFSG #1, where sending this back to the author could be considered a "fee".
This would almost certainly be non-free. I don't presume to speak for Debian, but I see nothing wrong with your analysis.
It would appear, however, that the LIRC team has already been made aware of this problem: the CVS version of irrecord[1] has a DFSG-free request, instead of a non-free requirement (the patch to the requirement can be found here[2]). The request, as phrased in the newest LIRC is as follows:
"Please send the finished config files to <lirc@bartelmus.de> so that I can make them available to others. Don't forget to put all information that you can get about the remote control in the header of the file. Press RETURN to continue."As this is not a legal requirement, but a non-binding request, it is not non-free.
It would be pretty straightforward (albeit time-consuming) to use (GP licensed) CVS diffs to back-patch the current irrecord to a version identical to the one in Debian, apart from the license text. This suggests to me that it is probably ok to simply change the message in the Debian version to that of the new version.
[1] - http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/lirc/lirc/daemons/irrecord.c?rev=HEAD&view=auto [2] - http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/lirc/lirc/daemons/irrecord.c?r1=5.37&r2=5.38
-- Lewis Jardine lewis@catbox.co.uk