Re: SEIKO EPSON license, suitable for non-free ?
On 07/12/12 11:50, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
> To ease the installation of the various Epson drivers [0], I'd like to get
> them uploaded to Debian (even non-free would be an improvement over their
> download page).
That would be nice, but no permission has been given to redistribute
them, and...
> But these packages all come with the "SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION SOFTWARE LICENSE
> AGREEMENT" (attached), which I wonder if it allows redistribution through
> Debian's non-free.
tl;dr: no.
| 2. [...] You may not share, rent, lease, encumber,
| sublicense or lend the Software.
... this specifically forbids "sharing". You'd need specific permission
from the copyright holders: at a minimum, Debian and its mirrors need to
be allowed to redistribute whatever you package in non-free.
It even goes further:
| 5. [...] You agree to use your best efforts and take
| all reasonable steps to safeguard the Software to ensure that no
| unauthorized person has access to them and that no unauthorized copy,
| publication, disclosure or distribution of any of the Software is
| made. You acknowledge that [...] unauthorized use and copying are
| harmful to EPSON and its suppliers
which is obviously not possible for Debian to agree to, given that if it
was in non-free, we'd be using our best efforts to ensure that everyone
on the Internet can get a copy! :-)
Another possible route would be to take the same approach as
game-data-packager, java-package, googleearth-package and friends:
require the user to download their own copy, and provide a script to
mangle it into an installable .deb on their own system, at their own
legal risk.
S
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