[I am not on -legal; though I will read the archives, please CC.]
Hi guys,
We're trying to release X11R6.7.1 over at X.Org these days, but we've
hit a little roadbump.
As I'm sure you all know, XFree86 post-4.4RC2 bears a non-DFSG-free
licence, which makes it impossible for Debian to include. X.Org forked
from XFree86 immediately before the licence change, and continued
developing a monolithic X distribution, which led to X11R6.7, which was
released relatively recently.
Now, with a release only 23 days away (isn't this better already?),
we've hit a speedbump. It's been alleged in Debian circles that the
XFree86 autoconfig code is non-free[0], and I've filed a release-blocker
bug on X.Org[1] accordingly.
However, on the release call today, it was alleged that the code was
actually DFSG-free, and that the so-called 'X-Oz licence' bore no legal
problems whatsoever, and would be fine to go into main, or whatever[2].
As we're coming up to a release and thus need to close this issue
quickly, could -legal please comment on this issue for completeness? I
would really like comments from the peanut gallery, the cheap seats, the
people who aren't lawyers, the people who are lawyers, whoever.
Thought it might be a nice break from images without source, QPL, MPL,
whatever. I've included one of the licence statements below for
completeness[3].
Cheers!
:) d, fd.o/X.Org monkey
[0]: http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/05/msg00045.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/05/msg01004.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/05/msg00362.html
[1]: http://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=955
[2]: X.Org's benchmark for capital-F-Freeness is the DFSG.
[3]:
/*
* Copyright 2003 by David H. Dawes.
* Copyright 2003 by X-Oz Technologies.
* All rights reserved.
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
* to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
* the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
* and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
* Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
* THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER(S) OR AUTHOR(S) BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
* OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
* ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
* OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
*
* Except as contained in this notice, the name of the copyright holder(s)
* and author(s) shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote
* the sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written
* authorization from the copyright holder(s) and author(s).
*
* Author: David Dawes <dawes@XFree86.Org>.
*/
--
Daniel Stone <daniels@debian.org>
Debian: the universal operating system http://www.debian.org
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