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Re: Review of license



On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:25:20 -0400 Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:

> [ Please keep me in the CC since I am not subscribed to -legal ]

Done.

> 
> I was recently asked to sponsor an upload of a package that carries the
> below license.  Is this license acceptable for main?
[...]

The license you quoted seems to be a modified variant of the Artistic
License v1.0 [1].  Besides some cosmetic changes, the main differences
are:

 * in sub-paragraph 4(c), which is however not much important since the
DFSG-free option is 4(b), I think

 * in paragraphs 5, 6, and 7, where some exceptions specific to language
interpreters were dropped: I don't think that the dropped parts were
essential for compliance with the DFSG

 * paragraph 8 of the Artistic License was dropped entirely: again, I
don't think its presence was essential for compliance with the DFSG

[1] /usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic

In summary, I don't see anything that could make this license less
DFSG-compliant than the Artistic License v1.0.
As far as the original Artistic License v1.0 is concerned, I personally
don't like it, and I would recommend against its adoption, but it has
been considered acceptable for main for a long time and I don't see any
clear non-freeness in it...

This is my opinion, let's wait for other debian-legal participants to
express theirs...

My usual disclaimers: IANAL, TINLA, IANADD, TINASOTODP.

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