[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Attribution to Apache on the web site ?



Hi,

[I'm not subscribed to debian-www. Please cc' me in any responses.]

after suggesting Paul Everitt to change an binding attribution clause
in their Zope's license to a voluntary one, he pointed out that Debian 
doesn't very much attribute software we are using, wrt. Apache running 
on www.debian.org.

I replied that Apache's license has not even a voluntary, non-binding
clause to use their "powered by" button, but still, I wonder if it
wasn't nice if we would somehow advertise the fact that our main web
server is also run by free software (don't know about the mirrors).

	Gregor







 
> I think the key point would be to educate users that it is indeed for
> their own sake to spread the word about Zope, so that they 
> voluntarily 
> install the credits and the attribution button on their 
> sites. The few 
> cases that don't do this would be the ones that would have contacted
> you to waive the requirement. Therefore, the main issue certainly are
> the requests that you would have decided to be *unreasonable*.

I undertand your sentiments.  There is a murky future in this regard.
Is reliance on voluntary acts of good will enough basis for a sound
business model?  We have identified attribution as the key return on
specific investments.  Would you feel comfortable seeking financing
from, say, your friends and family based on that kind of business model
whose return was voluntary attribution?

You might be pragmatically correct, that this just punishes the ones
that play by the rules.  There might also be some other ways to look at
it.

OTOH, I decided to see if Debian itself practices these voluntary acts
of attribution.  I telnetted to the debian.org web server and saw that
it was running Apache 1.3.3.  So I went to the Debian home page and
looked for the "Powered by Apache" button.  Nope, not there, maybe a
mention of Apache in the text.  Nope, not there.  Maybe a link to a
credits page.  Nope, no credits page.  I did a search and none of the
hits on Apache provided any indication that www.debian.org was served by
Apache.

Now surely Debian is educated about Apache and its benefits and wishes
to spread the good word about free software.  Surely they wish to set
the example of voluntary attribution.

Is voluntary attribution a realistic goal, or is it roughly and
realistically equivalent to no attribution?
 
> I'm well aware that this is a big issue for you that needs some
> thoughts, but currently, I don't see no other solution.

Certainly voluntary attribution is demonstrably weak.  Hopefully there
is some other way to think about it.


Reply to: