On Fri, 29 May 2015 14:12:51 +0200 Paul Gevers wrote: > Hi Debian legal, Hello Paul, thanks for taking these freeness issues seriously. > > I am investigating two files in the Lazarus source with the following > two licenses. I am wondering what you make of this [...] > First: [...] My own personal opinion is that the first license is really borderline, although it could be considered to barely comply with the DFSG. [...] > - 3. You may not have any income from distributing this source > - (or altered version of it) to other developers. When You > - use this product in a comercial package, the source may > - not be charged seperatly. This clause is really annoying, but it seems to allow the file to be sold as part of a commercial package. Hence, it could perhaps be considered to meet DFSG#1. Anyway, this first license should really be avoided: I recommend you to get in touch with the copyright owner of this first file and try to persuade him to re-license the file under widely used and clearly DFSG-free terms. I would suggest him to re-license under the zlib license [1], which is the closest DFSG-free license I am aware of. [1] http://www.zlib.net/zlib_license.html > > Second: > Windows XP Theme Manager is freeware. You may freely use it in any > software, including commercial software, provided you accept the > following conditions: > 1) The software may not be included into component collections and > similar compilations which are sold. If you want to distribute this > software for money then contact me first and ask for my permission. [...] The second license appears to be clearly non-free: it fails to explicitly grant permission to copy, redistribute, and modify (it just talks about "using", which is a vague term) and it absolutely forbids anyone to sell aggregate software distributions containing the file, thus failing to meet DFSG#1. I recommend you to get in touch with the copyright owner of this second file and try to persuade him to re-license the file under DFSG-free terms, such as, for instance, the Expat license [2]. [2] http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt I hope this helps. Bye. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/ There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
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