On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:52:22 +0000 Sean B. Palmer wrote: > On Dec 31, 2007 11:36 AM, Francesco Poli wrote: > > > > C = Allows distribution without full license text > > > > I am not able to see C as a reasonable requirement > > Fair enough. I've made a note of that in the following article: > > http://inamidst.com/stuff/eiffel/ > - Why the Eiffel Forum License? I've just read it (typo: my name is Francesco, not Francisco...). I'm not convinced about the preserving copyright notices issue, more on this later. [...] > > Are we sure that B is N for the 3-clause BSD license and for > > the Expat/MIT license? > > Yes, there is no text in those licenses which requires that all > copyright notices within the package they apply to are retained and > preserved. IIUC, your concern is with the word "above". The Expat license[1] states, in part: | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be | included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. [1] http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt The 3-clause BSD license[2] states, in part: | * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright | notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. [2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/info/BSD_3Clause.html You think that these clauses only apply to copyright notices that are placed *above* the license text, while giving permission to strip or alter isolated copyright notices that are near a line that just refers to the license text. Did I get what you mean? I'm not convinced that this is the case. Firstoff, does the law allow removing or altering appropriate copyright notices? I don't think so, but I'll leave this argument to real lawyers... Secondly, I think that the license text says "the above copyright notice" just because it is designed to be included verbatim in each file. However, if you prefer placing the license text in a centralized file (e.g.: LICENSE.txt) and just put copyright notices (+ a line pointing to the centralized file) in each source file, that's just a matter of practical convenience: I don't think that this could alter the meaning of the license, which mandates the preservation of copyright notices... To conclude, I still recommend you to adopt the Expat license (even though the Eiffel Forum License, version 2 is acceptable). Disclaimers: IANAL, TINLA, IANADD, TINASOTODP. -- http://frx.netsons.org/progs/scripts/refresh-pubring.html New! Version 0.6 available! What? See for yourself! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
Attachment:
pgpEDmxrLE8zG.pgp
Description: PGP signature