Re: tss2: Is it DFSG compatible

[Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org>]

Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org> writes:

> There is a package at mentors[1] and a RFS[2] requesting this package
> to be included in Debian. Looking at it I found that, although this
> package uses license BSD-3 license, it contains the following excerpt

Thank you for raising the issue here.

For reference in this discussion, can you please include the full text
of the conditions in a message here?

>   Licenses and Notices
>   Copyright Licenses:
>
>   * Trusted Computing Group (TCG) grants to the user of the source
>   code in this specification (the "Source Code") a worldwide,
>   irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty free, copyright license to
>   reproduce, create derivative works, distribute, display and perform
>   the Source Code and derivative works thereof, and to grant others
>   the rights granted herein.

Whatever qualifies as “the source code in this specification” is
explicitly free software for the recipient of this license; they are
free to do all those actions, which IMO is the full set of freedoms
needed for a work in Debian.

Good so far.

>   * The TCG grants to the user of the other parts of the specification
>   (other than the Source Code) the rights to reproduce, distribute,
>   display, and perform the specification solely for the purpose of
>   developing products based on such documents.

This attempts to limit the purpose which users of “parts of the
specification (other than the Source Code)” can have. That is IMO a
non-free restriction, and a work under those restrictions cannot be in
Debian because it violates DFSG §6.

> Is this last paragraph a possible violation of DSFG, or, should it not
> be taken in consideration since it seems to exempt the source code?

All parts of a work – indeed, the work as a whole – must satisfy the
DFSG for it to be allowed in Debian. Whether or not it is “source code”
is immaterial to that requirement.

Parts which are not free to Debian recipients must be excluded from
anything in the Debian system. So if a source package were needed to
build a work, it must not use (or derive from) those non-free parts in
any source or binary package.

-- 
 \      “For mad scientists who keep brains in jars, here's a tip: why |
  `\       not add a slice of lemon to each jar, for freshness?” —Jack |
_o__)                                                           Handey |
Ben Finney