Bug#964815: it looks like dprof2calltree cannot be distributed with a GPL-2 work

[Nicholas D Steeves <nsteeves@gmail.com>]

Package: kcachegrind-converters
Version: 4:17.08.3-2
Severity: serious
Tags: upstream
Forwarded: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424078

While preparing to import the new upstream release (https://salsa.debian.org/qt-kde-team/kde/kcachegrind/-/merge_requests/3) I did a copyright review, and during that review I discovered converters/dprof2calltree © 2004 OmniTI Computer Consulting with a problematic advertising clause.  Here is a copy of what I filed upstream:

converters/dprof2calltree is © 2004 OmniTI Computer Consulting

Unfortunately its BSD-4-like (with problematic advertising clause) has the following issue:

* All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by OmniTI Computer Consulting.

* Neither name of the company nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

I'm not 100% certain that bundling dprof2calltree with kcachegrind constitutes a "product[s] derived from this software", because I'm also of the opinion that bundling != derivation, but it seems like a lawyer might argue the it does.  So kcachegrind and any distributions' package would also need written persmission from OmniTI Computer Consulting.

Metadata, such as a package description (deb, rpm, etc.) or possibly even converters/README can be argued to be advertising materials.  If the package description appears in an "App store" like Discover then I think it would be considered advertising.

Thus, mentioning features provided by dprof2calltree in any user-facing way appears to require written permission from OmniTI Computer Consulting.

Given how this requirements is more restrictive than the GPL-2, it looks like dprof2calltree cannot be distributed with a GPL-2 work.

Disclaimer, this is not legal advice, but legal advice should be sought if kcachegrind is to continue to distribute dprof2calltree.

Thanks,
Nicholas