On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:07:56 -0700 (PDT) Ken Arromdee wrote: > On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Francesco Poli wrote: > >> "3. All advertising materials (including web pages) mentioning > >> features or use of this software, or software that uses this software, > >> must display the following acknowledgment: "This product uses software > >> developed by Spread Concepts LLC for use in the Spread toolkit. For > >> more information about Spread see http://www.spread.org""; > > What you quoted looks like an Obnoxious Advertising Clause (OAC), a > > GPL-incompatible restriction, but one that has traditionally been > > accepted by the Debian Project as compliant with the DFSG (even though > > recommended against), AFAICT. > > Unlike the original BSD 4 clause license this adds "or software that uses > this software". Mmmmh, another difference with the OAC, that I somewhat neglected during my first reading... It seems that I am tired in these days, or maybe I am getting old! :-/ > > If I interpret this broadly (all software that uses this software must > display the sentence) it's non-free, since it imposes conditions on > non-derived software that happens to use it. On the grounds of DFSG#9, I suppose. > Even if I interpret it > narrowly (all advertising materials mentioning software that uses this > software, must display the sentence) it imposes conditions on advertising > for non-derived software. It looks right. > > If I interpret the addition as meaning "derived works" the license is free > but the wording is redundant. Sure. In summary, what you pointed out is another reason why the clause is unclear at best, non-free at worst. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/frx-gpg-key-transition-2010.txt New GnuPG key, see the transition document! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
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