Bug#288655: Opinions on "Paul Hsieh derivative license"

[Paul Cager <paul@paulcager.org>]

Ben Finney wrote:
> Paul Cager <paul-debian@home.paulcager.org> writes:
> 
>>> Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 The MyServer Team
>>> This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>>> it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
>>> the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
>>> (at your option) any later version.
> 
> So, with this, the terms require that the redistributor must license
> under the terms of the GPL, with no further restrictions.
> 
>>> The superFastHash hash function [is] released under the Paul Hsieh
>>> derivative license [...]
> 
> If this license requires restrictions additional to those in the GPL,
> then it is GPL-incompatible and cannot be redistributed under either
> license.
> 
>>> Paul Hsieh derivative license
>>>
>>> [...] Use and redistribution is limited to the following
>>> conditions:
>>>
>>>     * One may not create a derivative work which, in any way,
>>>     violates the Paul Hsieh exposition license described above on
>>>     the original content.
>>>
>>> [...]
>>> Paul Hsieh exposition license
>>> [...]
>>>
>>>     * The redistributor must fully attribute the content's
>>>     authorship and make a good faith effort to cite the original
>>>     location of the original content.
> 
> This restriction is additional to the GPL. The result is
> GPL-incompatible and cannot be redistributed under either license.
> 
>>>     * The content may not be modified via excerpt or otherwise
>>>     with the exception of additional citations such as described
>>>     above without prior consent of Paul Hsieh.
> 
> This restriction is additional to the GPL. The result is
> GPL-incompatible and cannot be redistributed under either license.
> 
>>>     * The content may not be subject to a change in license
>>>     without prior consent of Paul Hsieh.
> 
> This quite clearly is not compatible with the GPL: both licenses
> require that the work be distributed only under their terms, thus both
> cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
> 
>> Is this DFSG-free?
> 
> Worse, I don't think the work can be legally redistributed at all.
> 
> Any of the problems noted above in the text of the Paul Hsieh
> Exposition License make the combined work unredistributable, since one
> cannot satisfy both of GPL and the Paul Hsieh Exposition License
> simultaneously.
> 

Thanks very much Ben and Don. I'll contact Paul Hsieh to see if he'd be
willing to re-license it.