Re: Is there template for letters about software without licence ?
On 2/1/06, Charles Plessy <charles-debian-nospam@plessy.org> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I was wondering wether there was a template for letters in which one
> signals to upstream developpers that their software have no licence, and
> explains briefly the differences between GPL, BSD, public domain and no
> licence.
No template that I know of, but this is a great idea. Here's an email
that I had the opportunity to send a few years ago, although it was in
relation to a non-free license rather than the complete absence of a
license. (Names removed to protect identities from a casual Google
search, although anyone doing a little research can probably figure
out what software the letter was about.) For software with no license
at all, you may additionally need to explain that the default state of
copyright law is to give no permissions whatsoever. Maybe my email
can help to give you ideas?
[begin email]
Dear <upstream author>:
I am working on creating a set of packages of <related software> for
the Debian GNU/Linux operating system (web site is at www.debian.org).
I would love to include a Debian package of <software in question> so
that it could be used by the large number of programmers who use
Debian as a development platform.
Unfortunately, the licensing terms of <software in question> conflict
with Debian's principles of packaging only Free software. I am
therefore wondering if you would be willing to re-license <software in
question> under terms that are compatible with the Debian Free
Software Guidelines, available here:
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
Specifically, these two license requirements of <software in question>
seem problematic:
<itemized license requirements>
Let me make it clear that I am not speaking on behalf of the Debian
Project. However, I would be very happy to be able to package
<software in question> for Debian along with the rest of the <related
software>, which <related software's upstream> has kindly released
under the GNU General Public License: <URL to related software's
license statement>
Thank you for your consideration,
[end email]
I had to send a followup email when the author wanted to release his
software under a "Debian license"; my followup included this:
[begin followup]
Debian actually has software packages with many different licenses, so
there is no single Debian license. Some of the more common free
software licenses are the GNU GPL, the Library GPL, the BSD, Artistic,
MIT and Mozilla licenses. You might wish to read through a few of
them, available here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/
and please let me know when you find one that you think is appropriate.
[end followup]
Remember to thank upstream profusely if they re-license under a
DFSG-compatible license. Even if they refuse, thank them for their
time and consideration of your request.
You might also want to ask this on debian-legal, although they might
not have comments specifically regarding academic software.
best regards,
--
Kevin B. McCarty <kmccarty@princeton.edu> Physics Department
WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/ Princeton University
GPG: public key ID 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544
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