Re: Debian License agreement
On Sat, Mar 24, 2007 at 11:07:26PM +0300, Vsevolod Krishchenko wrote:
> On Saturday 24 March 2007 22:55, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > Surely this only applies to people who are selling stuff rather than
> > giving it away?
> It applies to people that use debian in business/education/etc. :(
> > As far as an overall license, there isn't one, but we try to make sure
> > that works in Debian (IE, works in main) comply with the DFSG (but we
> > can't possibly guarantee that they do.)
> It's pity.
Yes, it's a pity that the Russian authorities should misunderstand the
nature of software licensing to such a degree.
There is no EULA for Debian because an EULA is a license which *restricts*
what the user is allowed to do with his own copy of the software. We place
no restrictions on the use of the software and require that our upstreams
don't do so either, so an EULA does not apply here.
There are individual licenses governing how you may copy and redistribute
the individual components of the system, but that does not apply to use.
Under international copyright conventions, your liability for *having* a
copy of the software in the absence of an EULA, even if that copy was made
illegally, is zero; it's the making and distribution of copies which are
reserved rights.
I'm sorry that this doesn't seem to be sufficient to keep the Russian
authorities from harrassing you. :/ Nevertheless, I'm not sure that Debian
wants to go down the road of creating an "EULA" where none should apply.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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