Re: Licensing issues (Was: Debian tasks: Reputer)
Le 7/18/12 2:51 PM, Andreas Tille a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 02:11:39PM +0200, Sascha Steinbiss wrote:
>> I have just talked to Stefan (Kurtz) about this and apparently he is not
>> interested in making REPuter available, even in binary form, without a
>> signed written license agreement. So that means it is not just about
>> "accessible source for some individuals", the problem rather being the
>> uncontrollable nature of distributing the software via a Debian repository.
>> Regarding source, the source code of REPuter is also not open.
>> By the way, the REPuter functionality is now contained in the Vmatch
>> software suite (http://www.vmatch.de), which is similarly licensed.
>> Sorry to disappoint, but it seems quite unlikely that a package will
>> ever come up for this software.
> I exluded REPuter and thus also RepeatFinder which depends from it from
> our todo list in the tasks file because I do not see a point in
> advertising non-distributable code.
>
> More generally speaking: We did not (yet) reached the goal that
> including a software into Debian is attractive enough to let people
> consider any license change.
>
> This reminds me that we also to some extend should try to do some
> non-technical work like talking to people about their license as I
> suggested here
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/Meeting/Southport2012/ePetition_Phylip
>
> but unfortunately without any visible success.
This is not an easy task. I tried for several softwares to get changes but:
- there are those such a S. Kurzt that make money with the software
(but this is only the smallest part)
- those where author is not reachable anymore (or does not answer requests)
- those who agree, but their licensing modification require an
agreement from their employer (University, company etc...). In this last
case, we face a wall usually because we face layers etc... and go
through long discussions/analysis for things that really do not worth
such. Or they simply don't care and let us with no answer.
It is unfortunately the same case for other kinds of upstream
modifications (patches, tagging sources vs binary version, direct access
to download,...).
Olivier
>
> Kind regards
>
> Andreas.
>
--
Olivier Sallou
IRISA / University of Rennes 1
Campus de Beaulieu, 35000 RENNES - FRANCE
Tel: 02.99.84.71.95
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