On Sat, 12 May 2012 11:19:51 +0200 Paul Gevers wrote: > Hi, Hello! > > While working on the package cacti, I came across some files included in > that project where I am unsure of the distributability or compatibility > of the code, since the cacti project itself is under the GPL2 license. Thanks a lot for taking this issue seriously. > > The files in question are in the include/treeview folder which can be > viewed on-line at [1], i.e. ftiens4.js and ftiens4_export.js. As the > license for these files is not included in the project, but a link is > provided in the headers for these files, I took a look at the web-site > of the treeview project [2], where a link can be found to what I believe > are the two possible licenses for this source. I have copied the > Distributor's license below this e-mail. If the license you quoted is really the one that applies to those two files, then I think there are some issues to be fixed. First of all, that license is GPL-incompatible. It also fails to meet the DFSG and hence those two files are non-free. That license has so many GPL-incompatible and/or non-free restrictions, that I won't even go into a detailed analysis... I expect that other debian-legal regulars agree with this conclusion. [...] > Could you please help me identifying if/what actions need to be taken? > If this license is incompatible with GPL2 I expect that I should at > least contact upstream about this license violation. I think you should get in touch with upstream and explain them that including those two files in their project makes cacti non-free. Possible solutions I can think of: (A) if cacti may work without the non-free files (possibly with reduced functionality), those files should be dropped entirely (B) if cacti cannot work without those files, appropriate DFSG-free and GPL-compatible replacements should be found (or clean-room developed) (C) Gubusoft should be contacted and persuaded to re-license those files under GPLv2-compatible terms At least, this is what I think should be tried. I hope this helps. [...] > [1] > http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-cacti/cacti.git;a=tree;f=include/treeview > [2] http://www.treeview.net/ > [3] http://www.treeview.net/tv/license.asp -- 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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