"Giacomo A. Catenazzi" <[email protected]> writes: > ----- > Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 by Jutta Degener and Carsten Bormann, > Technische Universitaet Berlin > > Any use of this software is permitted provided that this notice is not > removed and that neither the authors nor the Technische Universitaet Berlin > are deemed to have made any representations as to the suitability of this > software for any purpose nor are held responsible for any defects of > this software. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY FOR THIS SOFTWARE.
The lawyerbomb “any use of this software” needs to be clarified. I agree with Giacomo that, at best, this fails DFSG§1 and DFSG§3 since it does not grant permission to redistribute under the same terms. The first run-on sentence, somehow entangling a disclaimer with license, would not be out of place in the usual legalese document, but well-known free software license texts demonstrate that one can be clear without such contortions. > As a matter of courtesy, the authors request to be informed about uses > this software has found, about bugs in this software, and about any > improvements that may be of general interest. > > Berlin, 28.11.1994 > Jutta Degener > Carsten Bormann It's not clear, but this text seems to be outside the terms and conditions of the license, and hence is neutral. > ----- […] > It seems that the author intention was to interpret the "any use" in a > wider manner, but this is not legally safe for us. I would recommend liaising with upstream to request they re-license the work under well-understood free software terms, instead of custom non-free terms. Probably the best fit to their apparent intention is the terms of the Expat license <URL:http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt>. -- \ “None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love | `\ not freedom, but license.” —John Milton | _o__) | Ben Finney -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
