Re: Are these licenses DFSG?
"Giacomo A. Catenazzi" <cate@debian.org> writes:
> -----
> Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 by Jutta Degener and Carsten Bormann,
> Technische Universitaet Berlin
>
> Any use of this software is permitted provided that this notice is not
> removed and that neither the authors nor the Technische Universitaet Berlin
> are deemed to have made any representations as to the suitability of this
> software for any purpose nor are held responsible for any defects of
> this software. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY FOR THIS SOFTWARE.
The lawyerbomb “any use of this software” needs to be clarified. I agree
with Giacomo that, at best, this fails DFSG§1 and DFSG§3 since it does
not grant permission to redistribute under the same terms.
The first run-on sentence, somehow entangling a disclaimer with license,
would not be out of place in the usual legalese document, but well-known
free software license texts demonstrate that one can be clear without
such contortions.
> As a matter of courtesy, the authors request to be informed about uses
> this software has found, about bugs in this software, and about any
> improvements that may be of general interest.
>
> Berlin, 28.11.1994
> Jutta Degener
> Carsten Bormann
It's not clear, but this text seems to be outside the terms and
conditions of the license, and hence is neutral.
> -----
[…]
> It seems that the author intention was to interpret the "any use" in a
> wider manner, but this is not legally safe for us.
I would recommend liaising with upstream to request they re-license the
work under well-understood free software terms, instead of custom
non-free terms. Probably the best fit to their apparent intention is the
terms of the Expat license <URL:http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt>.
--
\ “None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love |
`\ not freedom, but license.” —John Milton |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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