On Thu, 3 Sep 2009 15:51:31 +0200 Carsten Wolff wrote: [...] > On Thursday 03 September 2009, Josselin Mouette wrote: > > It is very different since this additional section makes it a copyleft > > license, which makes it incompatible with most other copyleft licenses. > > I see. It seems I completely misread that section. I see now, why it's not > just explanatory, but actually makes it a copyleft license.
Well, not completely a copyleft license, IMHO.
It says:
| If you choose to provide your enhancements, or if you choose to
| otherwise publish or distribute your enhancements,
[in source form and without doing something special],
| then you thereby grant Internet2 and its contributors a
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to
[do many things, including sub-license].
Hence, it does _not_ require you to grant *any recipient* the *same*
rights you received.
It says that, when you distribute enhanced source (without doing a
special action), you will automatically grant the *original authors* and
contributors *more* rights than those you received from them.
This is not a classical (strong or weak) copyleft mechanism, AFAICT.
This is something different.
I am not even much persuaded that it meets the DFSG (i.e.: that it is
suitable for Debian "main").
All this reminds me of the old discussions about the QPL:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/08/msg00047.html
>
> > The “Internet2 and its contributors” choice of words is poor, but
> > otherwise it sounds like a reasonable and free copyleft license.
>
> This means, a program under this license is fit for the "main" section of
> Debian?
I personally disagree: as I said above, I am not sure the license meets
the DFSG, and I don't feel it can be described as a "copyleft" license.
I hope my personal opinion is useful as a contribution to the
discussion.
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..................................................... Francesco Poli .
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