On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 22:10:46 +0200 Florian Weimer wrote:
> * Francesco Poli:
[...]
> > I strongly *dislike* the entire concept of allowing a limited set of
> > additional requirements to be added. It's *against* the spirit of
> > the GPLv2 (where the FSF promised that new versions would "be
> > similar in spirit to the present version", see GPLv2, section 9.)
> > and greatly weakens the copyleft.
>
> But the section (b) you have been quoted just spells out what we have
> been assuming and practicing all the time: the MIT and 3-clause BSD
> licenses, which require the preservation of legal notices and credits,
> are compatible with the GPL, even though they are technically further
> restrictions.
If I were sure it does this and only this, then I would be more than
happy it is explicitly permitted.
The problem, as I explained, is that I am afraid that broader
interpretations are possible...
>
> > Especially, clause 7b is a permission to add a possibly non-free
> > requirement. Actually: what exactly is a "reasonable legal notice"?
>
> Well, we can decide this on a case-by-case basis. We already have to,
> because licenses which require certain notices to be preserved are
> very common.
Yes, that is exactly what I expressed: the disappointment that
GPL-compatibility is no longer a DFSG-compliance guarantee.
Some restrictions that can be legally added to a GPLv3'd work will make
the work non-free, so we have to check on a case-by-case basis... :-(
>
> > What exactly is an "author attribution"?
>
> Author attribution is a well-known concept in droit d'auteur copyright
> systems, and I think the U.S. code knows about it, too.
OK, maybe "author attribution" is clear enough, but I'm still worried
about the so-called "reasonable legal notices"...
>
> > These terms are not defined anywhere in the license. I'm concerned
> > that they could be interpreted in a broad sense and allow people to
> > take a GPLv3'd work and add some sort of invariant long text that
> > nobody will ever be able to remove or modify... This option could
> > make a work include unmodifiable & unremovable parts and thus fail
> > to fully grant the freedom to modify.
>
> Yeah, but this is nothing any license can guard against. People might
> just make an illegal derivative even if this is forbidden by the
> license.
Well, in the case of the GNU GPL v3, it can be argued that the license
does *not* forbid this! And it could even be the correct interpretation
of the license!
> Either way, we are free to reject to distribute it.
>
> Version 3 certainly implements a weaker copyleft than version 2
That's exactly what I was complaining about!
> (possibly with the exception of patents), but I don't think we should
> worry too much about that. Debian is sort of agnostic when it comes
> to the question whether free software licenses should be copyleft or
> not.
I can be agnostic about copyleft, but adopting a license which is almost
twice as long and complicated as the GPLv2 (which, in its turn, is
definitely not a short and simple one!) and getting a weak copyleft
sounds kinda awkward!
When I do not want copyleft I adopt a simple non-copyleft license!
$ wc /usr/share/common-licenses/BSD /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2 \
GPL-v3_text.txt
26 225 1499 /usr/share/common-licenses/BSD
340 2968 17992 /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2
676 5644 35068 GPL-v3_text.txt
1042 8837 54559 total
Imagine this: I adopt an overly complicated license which is about 25
times longer than the 3-clause BSD, and still my code can be
proprietarized! Wow! :-(
>
> >> 13. Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.
>
> My concern is that the "you may sell yourself into slavery" clause
> earlier in the license will encourage people to adopt the AGPL.
> Certainly not a good development.
Indeed.
P.S.: please do not Cc: me, as long as you reply to debian-legal:
I didn't ask you to do so; thanks
--
http://frx.netsons.org/doc/nanodocs/testing_workstation_install.html
Need to read a Debian testing installation walk-through?
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
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