Hello, after reading the Academic Free License 2.1, which is used by BLFS, and also checking the debian-legal thread[1] about it, I don't quite understand why it's used in BLFS.
Two relevant quotes from a message[2] on debian-legal:
> 3) Grant of Source Code License. The term "Source Code" means the > preferred form of the Original Work for making modifications to it > and all available documentation describing how to modify the > Original Work. This is problematic, IMHO: if I want to distribute "Source Code", have I to ship *every* single piece of available documentation that describes how to modify the Original Work? Even independently written documentation?
That seems really strange.
> 9) Acceptance and Termination. If You distribute copies of the > Original Work or a Derivative Work, You must make a reasonable > effort under the circumstances to obtain the express assent of > recipients to the terms of this License. This is my main concern: distributors must obtain express license acceptance assent from recipients.
Here the AFL seems to be far more restrictive than the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0" license also used by BLFS. That license doesn't require me to get express license acceptance from recipients, which IMHO is quite a hurdle. The recent message[3] in this list said that:
In addition to the main license, I also feel that the books should dual license the code (scripts and config files) in the the books with a very open license such as the AFL currently in BLFS or a BSD type of license. The reason is to basically leave the instructions unencumbered.
IMHO the AFL clearly IS NOT a "very open license". If the intent is to leave the instructions unencumbered, some other license should be chosen instead of the AFL. Currently the instructions seems to be more encumbered than the descriptive text, which seems to be exactly the opposite of what was recommended in that message[3]. [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/10/msg00230.html [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/10/msg00257.html [3] http://linuxfromscratch.org /pipermail/blfs-dev/2006-August/015663.html -- Markus Laire -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
