Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I would be interested to hear your opinions on the Geant4 Software > License, version 1.0 [1]. [...] > [1] http://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/license/LICENSE.html
I think it is clearly GPL-incompatible (as you noted) for reasons similar to the old BSD licence and it might not follow the DFSG because of clauses 4 (automatic donation to upstream), clause 8 (no right to dispute unauthorised inclusion of your code) and maybe 5 (discrimination against fields of use) below. Why won't they use something like the BSDish "EU Datagrid Licence"? (Disclaimer: name from memory, unchecked on -legal as far as I recall.) > The license itself is reproduced below. It looks like a combination of > the X-Oz license plus an anti-patent clause. Because of that, I think > it is not DFSG-free, but if anyone disagrees I'm open to convincing. :-) A wdiff suggests it is substantially different from the X-Oz licence and it does not seem to share the super-trademark attempt. Clause 2 is possibly unclear in a similar way to the X-Oz licence, though hopefully the drafter is less confrontational than X-Oz. > It's also GPL-incompatible, but all of Geant4's dependencies are LGPL, > MIT/X, or Zlib licensed so that shouldn't be a problem. Mostly I'm > looking for opinions about (1) whether Geant4 could go into non-free > once its dependencies are available in Debian and (2) whether it's safe > for unofficial Debian packages to be distributed from a > non-Debian-affiliated site in the US. I don't see an obstacle, but > maybe I'm missing something... (1) I think clause 8 probably makes it unwise to put it in non-free, unless all distributors of non-free are happy to kiss their copyright controls goodbye. (2) I don't see a problem in that. Commented clauses: > 2. The user documentation, if any, included with a redistribution, must > include the following notice: > > \"This product includes software developed by Members of the Geant4 > Collaboration ( http://cern.ch/geant4 ).\" > > If that is where third-party acknowledgments normally appear, this > acknowledgment must be reproduced in the modified version of this > software itself. > > 3. The names \"Geant4 and ÂThe Geant4 toolkit may not be used to > endorse or promote software, or products derived therefrom, except with > prior written permission by [EMAIL PROTECTED] If this software is > redistributed in modified form, the name and reference of the modified > version must be clearly distinguishable from that of this software. > > 4. You are under no obligation to provide anyone with any modifications > of this software that you may develop, including but not limited to bug > fixes, patches, upgrades or other enhancements or derivatives of the > features, functionality or performance of this software. However, if you > publish or distribute your modifications without contemporaneously > requiring users to enter into a separate written license agreement, then > you are deemed to have granted all Members and all Copyright Holders of > the Geant4 Collaboration a license to your modifications, including > modifications protected by any patent owned by you, under the conditions > of this license. > > 5. You may not include this software in whole or in part in any patent > or patent application in respect of any modification of this software > developed by you. [...] > 8. This license shall terminate with immediate effect and without notice > if you fail to comply with any of the terms of this license, or if you > institute litigation against any Member or Copyright Holder of the > Geant4 Collaboration with regard to this software. Hope that helps, -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
