On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:31:59 +0100 Andrew Suffield wrote: > On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 07:28:03PM +0200, Francesco Poli wrote: > > On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:50:27 +0100 Andrew Suffield wrote: > > > > > Package: spread > > > Severity: serious > > > > > > "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""; > > > > > > For -legal: consider this page: > > > http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/spread > > > > What should I consider, more precisely? > > Why does this webpage, which mentions features and use of the > software, not contain the statement required by the license? Ah, I now see what you meant. I interpreted the sentence as "All advertising materials (even when they consist of web pages) mentioning ...". Hence, I failed to see any issues with http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/spread which is indeed a web page, but not advertising material, AFAICT. However, I now see that another interpretation is possible. You are right that the sentence is unclear at best, and could be interpreted as implying that all web pages are to be considered, by definition, advertising materials. > > Is this requirement one which Debian can realistically satisfy? Maybe or maybe not, but, if the second interpretation is indeed the one intended by the license drafter(s) and (especially) by the software copyright holder(s), it is more obnoxious than obnoxious... > > How did this absurdity ever get in? I don't know. As far as I am concerned, I have realized that FTP-masters are often much more lax than me and other debian-legal regulars, when assessing DFSG-freeness... :-( This could be one of those cases... or maybe just a simple oversight... -- 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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