Hi Dave,
thanks for your quick reply. I'll keep fedora-legal-list on copy,
perhaps they want to comment.
On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 20:39 -0400, dcoffin(a)cybercom.net wrote:
Hi Nils,
I changed the text because some customers are paranoid
about the letters "GPL". It seems that Debian is bothered by:
> (a) include full source code*
Now I don't need to exactly match the GPL, but I must
require something that commercial software companies would
never accept, without creating problems for distributors of
free software.
How about changing "include" to "offer, at no extra
charge,"?
I'm not a lawyer ;-), but the source code provisions in the GPL are a
bit complicated -- to stay compatible, one would have to formulate
something compatible to 32 lines of legalese in the GPL license ;-). I
don't know about your customers, but I think an easy way to stay
compatible to the GPL would be dual-licensing, e.g. extend the text to
something like:
"... *If you have not modified dcraw.c in any way, a link to my homepage
qualifies as "full source code". ALTERNATIVELY, at your option, you may
distribute the code under the conditions of the GNU [Lesser] General
Public License Version 2[.1] [(or, at your option, any later version)]
[continue with standard GPL blurb]"
Of course, the version of the [L]GPL and whether you allow later
versions is up to you (it's your code). Would your customers be scared
away by that?
Thanks,
Nils
Dave Coffin 9/5/2007
On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 05:08:33PM +0200, Nils Philippsen wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> I'm the Fedora/Red Hat Enterprise Linux package maintainer for dcraw and
> when going over the licenses of some of my packages I found that the
> licensing blurb of dcraw.c has changed like this ("-": old, "+":
new
> version):
>
> --- 8< ---
> - Attention! Some parts of this program are restricted under the
> - terms of the GNU General Public License. Such code is enclosed
> - in "BEGIN GPL BLOCK" and "END GPL BLOCK" declarations.
> - Any code not declared GPL is free for all uses.
> + No license is required to download and use dcraw.c. However,
> + to lawfully redistribute this code, you must either (a) include
> + full source code* for all executable files containing RESTRICTED
> + functions, (b) remove all RESTRICTED functions, re-implement them,
> + or copy them from an earlier, unrestricted Revision of dcraw.c,
> + or (c) purchase a license from the author.
>
> - Starting in Revision 1.237, the code to support Foveon cameras
> - is under GPL.
> + The functions that process Foveon images have been RESTRICTED
> + since Revision 1.237. All other code remains free for all uses.
>
> - To lawfully redistribute dcraw.c, you must either (a) include
> - full source code for all executable files containing restricted
> - functions, (b) remove these functions, re-implement them, or
> - copy them from an earlier, non-GPL Revision of dcraw.c, or (c)
> - purchase a license from the author.
> + *If you have not modified dcraw.c in any way, a link to my
> + homepage qualifies as "full source code".
> --- >8 ---
>
> With the upcoming Fedora version 8, we want all packages' licensing
> terms be listed in the package (e.g. "GPLv2+" for GNU GPL Version 2 or
> later"). Now I'm a bit unsure about what to do about the terms of
> dcraw.c and whether they are still GPL compatible(*) and so forth.
>
> (*): IIRC, GPL allows distribution of a binary without source code but a
> written offer to ship it on request. The source code provisions in the
> dcraw terms might be "additional restrictions" that aren't GPL
> compatible.
>
> Would you please shed some light on this? I'd very much appreciate it.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Nils
> --
> Nils Philippsen / Red Hat / nphilipp(a)redhat.com
> "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
> Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- B. Franklin, 1759
> PGP fingerprint: C4A8 9474 5C4C ADE3 2B8F 656D 47D8 9B65 6951 3011
--
Nils Philippsen / Red Hat / nphilipp(a)redhat.com
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- B. Franklin, 1759
PGP fingerprint: C4A8 9474 5C4C ADE3 2B8F 656D 47D8 9B65 6951 3011