Bug#435476: base-files: add MIT License as a common license
Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es> writes:
> reassign 435476 debian-policy
> thanks
>
> On Wed, 1 Aug 2007, Carl Fürstenberg wrote:
>
>> Package: base-files
>> Version: 4.0.0
>> Severity: wishlist
>>
>> I've seen plenty of instances of the usage of MIT License. Wouldn't it
>> be optimal to include it as a common license?
>
> Maybe, or maybe not. I prefer to delegate this decision to the debian-policy
> group, as explained in the base-files FAQ, so I'm reassigning the report.
Hi Carl,
The problem with including the MIT license in common-licenses is that it
typically contains references to specific organizations. Here's the
typical final paragraph:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE X CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Note the "X CONSORTIUM" bit in there. The version that's available from
opensource.org replaces that with "AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS," but the
most common form in which I've seen this license is with a specific person
or organization.
We can only ask people to refer to common-licenses if the exact text of
the license in every detail is invariant. The BSD license is something of
a special case there because so much software is actually copyrighted by
the University of California and hence the copyright holder stays the
same.
If someone wants to do the work to establish that there are a lot of users
of MIT licenses that use the modified form that doesn't include a specific
organization or person, I'd be happy to consider this, but given how brief
the license is and how many minor wording variations it has, I think it's
better to just quote it in its entirety in each copyright file.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: