Re: Free component in a non-free tarball
Chipping in my 2 cents here...
On the "policy"/legal question of whether it's permissible to package
the internal open source in this larger source for the Debian project,
I have no specific opinion but it sounds complicated. You might
I do. Remember the GPL's mantra: "Free as in speech". The software
should be available for anyone,
without any obstacles in obtaining it. To me, it is clearly a violation
of its own license.
Granted, you might be able to download the part, safely cut it out of
whatever proprietary software
is around it, but the next distribution (Redhat, Arch, FreeBSD) might
run into the same issue.
Thus, finding a way to make the AmberTools downloadable without the need
to register is the better solution. Either by asking NICELY, or by
making it available on a different website.
gauge upstream's feelings by asking if they can provide a tarball with
just the open source parts. If not, even if your interpretation of the
license situation is that you can package the inner code, it may not
be worth it if it's fought by upstream. (E.g. they may see their more
restrictive license as "additional terms" on top of the license in the
inner files, thus basically creating a non-open source license.) Of
course I am not a lawyer, just noting that it's much more pleasant to
package when upstream is cooperative or at least not hostile :)\
Having to register to download software is not free software. It is open
source. That is a difference.
(Also not a lawyer. ;) )
Thomas
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