Re: Freeness of a license - french

[Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org>]

On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 10:14:04AM +0200, Miriam Ruiz wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if the "Art Libre" license (
> http://moleinvasion.tuxfamily.org/download/snd/LICENSE.txt ) might be
> considered DFSG-free? It's written in french, and although I can more or less
> understand a part of it, I'm incapable of be sure whether it might be
> DFSG-free or not.

Simple copyleft, clearly inspired by the GPL but modified to apply to
traditional genre of art.  Also unfortunately adopts some of the typical
language of copyright law in discussing "modifying originals" vs. "modifying
copies", drawing a distinction that doesn't apply very well to electronic
media.

The only clause I would draw attention to is the following:

 2.2 LA LIBERTÉ DE DIFFUSER, D'INTERPRÉTER (OU DE REPRÉSENTATION):

 Vous pouvez diffuser librement les copies de ces oeuvres, modifiées ou non,
 quel que soit le support, quel que soit le lieu, à titre onéreux ou gratuit
 si vous respectez toutes les conditions suivantes:
 [...]
 - indiquer au destinataire où il pourra avoir accès aux originaux (originels
 et/ou conséquents). L'auteur de l'original pourra, s'il le souhaite, vous
 autoriser à diffuser l'original dans les mêmes conditions que les copies.

Off-the-cuff translation to English, feel free to check against artlibre.org
if you wish:

 2.2 Freedom to distribute and to interpret (or perform):

 You may freely distribute copies of these works, modified or not,
 regardless of the medium, regardless of the location, for a fee or free if
 you respect all of the following conditions:
 [...]
 - indicate to recipient where he can access the originals (original works
 and/or contributed works).  The author of the original can, if he wishes,
 permit you to distribute the original under the same terms as the copies.

I don't think that requiring a statement telling recipients where to get the
original work is onerous or non-free, but it's the only thing that stands
out, so I figured I'd point it out anyway.

BTW, requests for license review should be sent to debian-legal, not to
debian-mentors...

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/