Matt Brubeck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote: > >> If the clause in question is just a request, why do the upstream >> maintainers need the permission of all contributors to move it aside? > > Because the license otherwise requires that "this permission notice" > (which includes the request in question) must be included verbatim in > all copies of the software.
Then the request is part of the permission notice, and permission to distribute the software is contingent on distribution of the author's views irrespective of the software. If this were a sentence about political or religious issues, it would be clearly non-free. I think a *requirement* to pass on a request to please give something nice to the author is similarly non-free, but below the threshold at which it matters. -- Brian Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
