Re: CMU LTI Licence

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Here are some comments on this license.

Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> writes:

> ##  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to use and distribute  ##
> ##  this data and its documentation without restriction, including       ##
> ##  without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,  ##
> ##  distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of this work, and to      ##
> ##  permit persons to whom this work is furnished to do so, subject to   ##
> ##  the following conditions:                                            ##

All the DFSG-required permissions are granted. Good so far.

> ##  1. The data must retain the above copyright notice, this list of     ##
> ##     conditions and the following disclaimer.                          ##

Effectively the same as other requirements in many free software works.
No problem.

> ##  2. Any modifications must be clearly marked as such.                 ##

This kind of requirement is conventionally interpreted to be satisfied
by the inclusion of a detailed changelog file. No problem.

> ##  3. The author names and institution are retained.                    ##

This will be done automatically by clause 1 and the changelog, so I
don't see the point of repeating it. No problem, though.

> ##  4. Neither the authors nor the institution are used to endorse or    ##
> ##     promote products derived from this data without specific prior    ##
> ##     written permission.                                               ##

Another common restriction conventionally regarded as acceptable for
free software works. No problem.

> ##  5. Any commercial, public or published work that uses this data      ##
> ##     must contain a clearly visible acknowledgment as to the           ##
> ##     provenance of the data.                                           ##

I don't really know what this means. It clearly places a restriction on
a field of endeavour (“commercial, public or published work”), but I
don't know whether it violates DFSG §6. Other opinions required.

> ##  CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AND THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS WORK         ##
> ##  DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS DATA OR SOFTWARE,        ##
[…]

Warranty disclaimers are conventionally regarded as unproblematic for DFSG.


Francis Tyers <ftyers@prompsit.com> writes:

> I think this is a DFSG-free licence. 

The only reservation I have is the one above, about the license's clause
5.

> Any other thoughts ?

Thank you for your attention to detail in checking the freedom granted
in this work.

-- 
 \        “You can be a victor without having victims.” —Harriet Woods |
  `\                                                                   |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney