[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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