Re: problematic license
Joop Stakenborg <aba@casema.net> writes:
> After contacting the author of one of my packages (psk31lx), he has changed
> the license, which might allow us to put it into main. Here it is:
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> This software may be distributed as freeware, as long as it is only
> used for amateuer radio purposes.
> Explicit permission is given to distribute this software freely on
> Internet FTP/WWW-servers, Telephon Mailboxes, Amateur Packet BBS and
> CD-ROMs, as long as the reference to the author is not removed.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The way I read this is:
>
> Anyone can distribute this, but only amateur radio operators can use it.
> ---------- ---
>
> I suppose this is not good enough for main, how can we garantee that
> only amateur radio operators use this software? I could of course
> include a shell script, which starts the main program after the user
> agrees it is only used for 'amateur radio purposes'.
Why do even that? Include the "only for amateuer radio purposes"
line in the description that people see in dselect/apt, and be done
with it - his explicit permission to distribute the software freely on
all those things he named means that we don't have any obligation to
him (the author) to check that the license is followed. Including the
"only for amateuer purposes" line in the description is really a
service to our users, so that they won't be led accidentally to
violate the license.
And of course this can only go into non-free. If the author has a
problem with that, he can change the license to something that's
actually free.
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