On Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:06:40 -0400 Roberto C. Sánchez wrote: > [ I am not subscribed to debian-legal, please keep me in the CC; M-F-T > set accordingly ] Done. > > I have filed an ITP for QuickFIX (c.f. #642268). As I was looking over > the license, I figured that it was just a standard BSD w/ advertising > clause. When I looked a little closer, I saw 5 clauses instead of 4, > which looked like the advertising clause had been split into two parts. > However, the final clause left me scratching my head (the complete > license is at the end of my email): > > 5. Products derived from this software may not be called "QuickFIX", > nor may "QuickFIX" appear in their name, without prior written > permission of quickfixengine.org This seems to start as name-change clause (allowed by DFSG#4), but then goes beyond and forbids an entire infinite class of possible names for derivative works (that is to say: any name having "QuickFIX" as a sub-string). This is overreaching, IMO, and makes the clause non-free. However, it seems that I am in a small minority of people who think so. The PHP License (up to the current version 3.01) includes an almost identical clause 4., and PHP is shipped in Debian main, nonetheless. I am convinced that PHP is non-free, and repeatedly explained my reasoning on debian-legal, but I failed to gain consensus on this issue, unfortunately. See for instance http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/11/msg00272.html > > I am not really sure if this provision makes QuickFIX unsuitable for > main. I personally think it does, but many other people (including ftp-masters, apparently) seem to disagree with me. > Is the Debian package a "product derived from this software" in > the sense meant by the license? [...] That's hard to say... -- 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
Attachment:
pgpVr56O1HU91.pgp
Description: PGP signature