Bug#690495: Prohibit click-through licenses or disclaimers
On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 11:39:03AM +0200, Bill Allombert wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 03:41:54PM -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:08:18AM +0200, Sune Vuorela wrote:
> > > What's next? prohibiting 'tip of the day' kind of dialogs? First run wizards?
> > > Or warnings that this is a dangerous/experimental/developer/debugging tool
> > > that might eat your dog if you aren't careful?
> >
> > I don't intend this as a slippery slope; I very specifically want to
> > cover the types of annoyances mentioned in the above paragraph, which
> > almost no software in Debian actually includes. See the transmission
> > bug I linked to in the original bug submission.
> >
> > If you installed something from Debian main, I think you'd find it
> > rather upsetting to run that software and get a prompt saying "By
> > running this software, you agree that ..." with an "I Agree" button.
> > This suggested policy change tries to cover cases like that; nothing
> > more.
>
> I agree.
I don't. I'm with Sune Vuorela on this.
> I think the consensus in Debian is
I don't see such consensus.
> that such click-through agreement
> have no legal basis
Not true in general.
> (at least as far as Debian main is concerned)
Main or not does not matter for the legal basis.
> so they are
> are best misleading,
Some click-through agreements are not misleading at all.
> so we should fix them by removing the misleading part
> (e.g. by making it a simple disclaimer).
Debian should decide case by case.
> If upstream believe that doing so is creating liability for them, then we should
> question whether upstream is comfortable with the right to distribute modified
> version in the first place.
I guess we should all do what we feel comfortable with.
>
> Debian should not be an agent in propagating the myth of enforceability of
> click-through agreement in general
Debian should not start a myth of the opposite.
> and in particular when they can be
> contrary to DFSG 6. (No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor) and
> 7. (Distribution of License):
>
> 7. Distribution of License
> The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the
> program is redistributed without the need for execution of an
> additional license by those parties.
>
> The wording "By running this software, you agree that ..." is very close
> to the execution of an additional license.
Then you admit that it may have legal effect. :-)
All depends on the shown text.
For example, the click-through disclaimer quoted by Paul on bug 689095 simply
reflects reality/truth, as Paul explained well. I see no conflict with the
DFSG. It is, in my opinion, perfectly reasonable to not remove this
click-through disclaimer. I'm not saying that Debian should preserve all
click-through messages. I'm just saying that each case should be looked at
separately, without general rule in Debian about click-through messages.
So I suggest to close bug 690495 without modification to debian-policy.
Regards,
Bart Martens
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