C-FSL: a new license for software from elstel.org
Dear Fellows of the Debian Legal List,
Currently most of the software available via my homepage
www.elstel.org is under S-FSL, a license which guarantees free usage and
certain modification rights but which is not a true open source license.
Debian packages would have been available for many such programs
including xchroot, confinedrv, bundsteg (something to print with an
inner margin) or debcheckroot (debsums like security tool). However as
non-OSS these programs are neither allowed to enter Debian repositories
nor could they attract many contributors. Some more software is in the
pipeline as well like a novellized Linux port of the CoAn automaton
simulator.
In order to improve the situation and make this software available to
a broader public I have once more designed a completely new license from
scratch: the so called 'Convertible Free Software License'. It shall
give the group of main contributors the additional right to re-license
like that is the case for the various BSD licenses. Organizations or
people who have not contributed to the development on the other hand
will be given no such additional right.
C-FSL is meant as a new true and strong but still comparably clear
and simple OSS license. It would be nice if you took the time to have a
look on it, what you think about it in general and how it would meet its
goals as expressed above.
The current version of the license is v0.8. It is still a draft
basically open for changes and has not been applied to any program yet.
Yours,
Elmar Stellnberger
P.S.: Here comes the current draft (v0.8) of the license:
CONVERTIBLE FREE SOFTWARE LICENSE
Version 0.8, 2016-01-21 , *** This is just a draft ***
copyright 2016, by Elmar Stellnberger
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document. You must not modify the license itself.
This license applies to any software containing a notice by the
copyright holder saying that it may be used under the terms of the
Convertible Free Software License. If a specific version number is
mentioned then usage rights include this version as well as any newer
version which will always be similar in spirit to this license. The term
Convertible Free Software license may be abbreviated as C-FSL.
1. Any work under this license comes completely without any warranty or
any kind of liability such as lost revenues, profits, harm or damage of
any kind even if the authors should have been advised of the possibility
of such harm or damage. It may be seen as research work and does not
claim for fitness to any particular usage purpose.
2. The term 'source code' applies to the preferred form that is used to
develop or apply changes to a work under this license referred to herein
as 'the work'. You are allowed to modify or change the source code if
you accept that the resulting changed work will become subject to this
license. As soon as you apply any change this is an implicit consent to
fully comply with this license and a consent that the work may be used
under this license.
3. It is your obligation that the changed version of your sources will
be available to the public for free. Available for free means that there
will be no undue hinderance in obtaining the given item like a
registration of the person who wants to download or obtain the given
item. Available for free also means that you must not charge for the
given item itself apart from the possibility to require a reasonable
charge for the physical reproduction of the data.
4. You are allowed to issue an 'automatic derivation process' on the
source code which will result in so called 'object code'. As soon as you
wanna share the object code with other people you are oblidged to make
all utilities and data necessary to obtain the object code either
availabel under C-FSL or any other open source license approved by
opensource.org. The given data and utilities need to be available to the
public for free.
5. When appyling changes to the source code you need to leave your name,
your email address and the date of your modifications so that other
people may contact you. We suggest to list all changes by contributors
either in a separate changelog file or in the header of the changed
file. Furthermore you need to give your changed version a 'marker' which
may be used to distinguish it from the upstream version when being
distributed to other people. The distributed product needs to be of the
form upstream name - dash upstream version - dash your marker optionally
followed by a version number under your control. The marker needs to be
unique, at least two letters in size. We suggest it to reflect the name
of your company or distribution.
6. You may choose to create a fork of a work under C-FSL by giving it a
completely different name. However you need to assert that people will
know that your fork is based on the original work. If your program has a
graphical user interface the whole C-FSL license as well as in case of a
fork a complete reference to the base product including email address
and web presence must be accesssible via the GUI. Otherwise a plain text
copy of this license as well as the aformentioned reference to the base
product where applicable need to be given and packed alongside the
distributed product. If your program has a comprehensive help, a manual
or info page and is a fork the base product needs to be fully referred
to there including a contact email and web presence. It does not apply
to quick or short command line help output as long as a more
comprehensive help page is also available.
7. Contributing to a work under C-FSL means that you will give a group
called the 'original authors' a consensus based right to re-license your
derived work so that it will be available under both licenses: the C-FSL
and the newly applied license. The original authors are the group of
people who have initially started to create a work. They shall be
mentioned at the beginning of the changelog or the file header of
changes. As soon as there is a consensus to do so by all original
authors the work may either be re-licensed, published as upstream
version without a marker or new people may be accepted and mentioned as
'original authors'.
8. No work under C-FSL shall be deemed part of an effective measure
under anti-circumvention laws like under article 11 of the WIPO
copyright treaty adopted on 1996-12-20 or any similar law. You must
assert that the right to use, modify, generate object code and
distribute any software under C-FSL will not be infringed by patent
claims or similar law. Every contributor grants by the act of
contributing to a work under C-FSL a non-exclusive, worldwide and
royalty-free patent license to any prospective contributor or user of
the given work applicable to all his 'essential patemt claims'. The
essential patent claims comprise all claims owned or controlled by the
contributor.
9. A work under C-FSL which is used as a component, plug-in, add-on of
another product, which is combined or which links against another work
needs either to be put under an open source license as approved by
opensource.org or it needs to be put under C-FSL as well. Usage of
proprietary libraries and kernel modules pose an exception to this rule.
There must be a functionally equivalent open source library for any
proprietary library which is required by a work under C-FSL in order to
run and execute. No such restriction applies to kernel modules. The term
'kernel' refers to the core of an operating system. Libraries which
provide operating system services use a well defined binary interface
but do not 'link' against the kernel. Libraries are separated components
which link against the given work or other components. The term
'linking' refers to the relocation of references or addresses when the
library is combined with another component in order to make the combined
aggregate executable or runnable. Such references are typically bound to
symbols which are part of the common interface between the library and
the component which the library is combined with at runtime.
10. This license is either governed by the Laws of Austria or by the
laws of any member state of the European Union where the first mentioned
original author lives or is a resident. Disputes shall be settled by the
nearest proper court given the home town or location of the first
original author. If any of the terms stated in this license were not in
accordance with the law of the country that governs this license all
other parts of the license shall remain valid.
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