[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Advice on wicd license



On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:19:55 +1000, Ben Finney wrote:

> David Paleino <d.paleino@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I'm packaging wicd for Debian, and it's licensed under GPL-2+. However, one
> > of its components ("uninstall.sh") carries this license:
> > 
> > # Copyright 2008 Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>, Northport, AL, USA
> > # Copyright 2008 Alan Hicks <alan@slackware.com>, Lizella, GA, USA
> > # All rights reserved.
> 
> This is redundant and confusing. Taken literally, it contradicts a
> grant of any license. It would be best for the copyright holder to
> remove this, since clearly they don't want to reserve *all* rights;
> they explicitly grant some of them unilaterally to the recipient.

Ok, understood.

> > # Redistribution and use of this script, with or without modification, is
> > # permitted
> 
> Grants everything needed to be DFSG, so long as the restrictions don't
> take it back.

In fact I saw it as DFSG-free, thanks for confirming.

> > provided that the following conditions are met:
> > #
> > # 1. Redistributions of this script must retain the above copyright
> > #    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
> 
> This conditions is fine by the DFSG, and it also doesn't require
> redistribution under the same license terms; therefore, the combined
> work can be licensed under the GPL.

Fine.

> [..]
> 
> > "Redistribution [..] with or without modification, is permitted"
> > seems a "free" (as in speech) statement
> 
> The whole license is effectively identical to the terms of the Expat
> license <URL:http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt>.

Well, I'd regard this license as a "BSD-1", i.e. BSD with just the first
clause (and the "header"):

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

(taken from /usr/share/common-licenses/BSD)

Also, the BSD license itself has a "All rights reserved" at the top.

Maybe I was just too overcautious asking here?
But, well, here we say "megghiu diri chi sacciu, chi no diri chi sapìa" (that's
Sicilian, not even Italian... it means "it's better to say «I don't know», than
saying «I didn't know»", meaning "better being cautious")

> The FSF expressly state that works licensed under the terms of the
> Expat license are GPL-compatible (meaning you can redistribute a
> derived work under the terms of the GPL)
> <URL:http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Expat>.

In any case, also the BSD license I'm referring above is GPL-compatible.

> > but that "All rights reserved" scaries me...
> 
> You're right, and it should best be removed by the copyright holder.
> You might like to communicate with them if possible to get it removed,
> for maximum clarity of license terms.

Sure. I have a good communication with upstream, and they just released this
new version because of other copyright issues (regarding a manpage)... only
that they added this new script :(

Thanks for your reply,
David

-- 
 . ''`.  Debian maintainer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino
 : :'  : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/
 `. `'`  GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://snipr.com/qa_page
   `-   2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: