Re: Bug#318204: ITP: php-simpletest -- Unit testing and web testing framework for PHP
Licence text included at end of mail.
I'll go over the licence part by part.
Preamble: Belive it or not a preamble is not legally a no-op. It establishes
intent which is sometimes
more important than the actual wording.
Definitions: There is nothing important in this section. The relevence of
this text come into play only
in the numbered sections.
1. OK
2. The words public domain in this clause are very interesting. Does this
mean that
I can make any changes at all that I want as long as I disavow copyright?
Public
domain is usually thought of as works that are not eligable for copyright,
have
expired, or have had copyright disavowed.
3. Requireng the changes to be noted in-file is problematic.The rest is even
more problematic seeming.
Requiring naming changes may not be DFSG-Free. The clause in the guidelines
seems to refer to
package names, not executable names. Requiring inclusion of the Standard
Version is probably Non-Free.
4. This clause is confusing. It implies that I must distribute the Standard
Version along with
the modified versions, but the latter part about documenting where the
standard version can
be obtained, imply that I do not.
5-9. Clauses similar to these appear in other free licences.
Realisticly the licence is intended to be free. The licence was designed to
ensure that people did not run
non-standard tests thinking they where standard tests. However requiring the
inclusion of the Standard Version
is probably going too far.
So I vote for not including the package.
IANADD, IANAL, TINLA
------
Preamble
The intent of this document is to state the conditions under which a Package
may be copied, such that the Copyright Holder maintains some semblance of
artistic control over the development of the package, while giving the users
of the package the right to use and distribute the Package in a more-or-less
customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable modifications.
Testing is essential for proper development and maintenance of
standards-based products.
For buyers: adequate conformance testing leads to reduced integration costs
and protection of investments in applications, software and people.
For software developers: conformance testing of platforms and middleware
greatly reduces the cost of developing and maintaining multi-platform
application software.
For suppliers: In-depth testing increases customer satisfaction and keeps
development and support costs in check. API conformance is highly measurable
and suppliers who claim it must be able to substantiate that claim.
As such, since these are benchmark measures of conformance, we feel the
integrity of test tools is of importance. In order to preserve the integrity
of the existing conformance modes of this test package and to permit
recipients of modified versions of this package to run the original test
modes, this license requires that the original test modes be preserved.
If you find a bug in one of the standards mode test cases, please let us
know so we can feed this back into the original, and also raise any
specification issues with the appropriate bodies (for example the POSIX
committees).
Definitions:
a.. "Package" refers to the collection of files distributed by the
Copyright Holder, and derivatives of that collection of files created
through textual modification.
b.. "Standard Version" refers to such a Package if it has not been
modified, or has been modified in accordance with the wishes of the
Copyright Holder.
c.. "Copyright Holder" is whoever is named in the copyright or copyrights
for the package. "You" is you, if you're thinking about copying or
distributing this Package.
d.. "Reasonable copying fee" is whatever you can justify on the basis of
media cost, duplication charges, time of people involved, and so on. (You
will not be required to justify it to the Copyright Holder, but only to the
computing community at large as a market that must bear the fee.)
e.. "Freely Available" means that no fee is charged for the item itself,
though there may be fees involved in handling the item. It also means that
recipients of the item may redistribute it under the same conditions they
received it.
1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
Standard Version of this Package without restriction, provided that you
duplicate all of the original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.
2. You may apply bug fixes, portability fixes and other modifications
derived from the Public Domain or from the Copyright Holder. A Package
modified in such a way shall still be considered the Standard Version.
3. You may otherwise modify your copy of this Package in any way, provided
that you insert a prominent notice in each changed file stating how and when
you changed that file, and provided that you do at least the following:
rename any non-standard executables and testcases so the names do not
conflict with standard executables and testcases, which must also be
provided, and provide a separate manual page for each non-standard
executable and testcase that clearly documents how it differs from the
Standard Version.
4. You may distribute the programs of this Package in object code or
executable form, provided that you do at least the following:
accompany any non-standard executables and testcases with their
corresponding Standard Version executables and testcases, giving the
non-standard executables and testcases non-standard names, and clearly
documenting the differences in manual pages (or equivalent), together with
instructions on where to get the Standard Version.
5. You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any distribution of this
Package. You may charge any fee you choose for support of this Package. You
may not charge a fee for this Package itself. However, you may distribute
this Package in aggregate with other (possibly commercial) programs as part
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not advertise this Package as a product of your own.
6. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as output
from the programs of this Package do not automatically fall under the
copyright of this Package, but belong to whomever generated them, and may be
sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this Package.
7.Subroutines supplied by you and linked into this Package shall not be
considered part of this Package.
8. The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.
9. THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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