... or how to make them obey me while still keeping Ion DFSG-"free" / satisfy the "Open Source" definition.
It seems that ideologist distros aren't going for the rather reasonable 28-day clause in the present license, so I've been considering simplifying the license. It could simply forbid distributing non-renamed versions. But it could also be just: > You may use, modify, and redistribute this software under the LGPL, > version 2.1, reproduced below, extended with the following terms: > > * Unless explicitly permitted by the copyright holder, redistribution > of modified versions is only allowed if they are and any executables > and library files installed by them, are renamed to not be associated > with the Ion(tm) project, and neither the copyright holder nor the > Ion(tm) project are pointed to for support. > > (Plus some standard stuff about how these conditions may not be > altered, how I retain the right to use your modifications, etc.) This kind of terms are permitted under these definitions [1,2] (or at least requiring name change, which _should_ by any reasonable interpretation include renaming executables with non-generic names, etc.) Now, behold, GPLv3! From my reading of it [3], it actually allows adding this kind of terms while remaining compatible with other GPLv3 (and "GPLv2 or later") works; cf. Section 7. The 28-day clause unfortunately does not seem to fit under the terms therein. But such a simple extra term alone doesn't really do much with regard to bastard distributors carrying ancient versions. Now comes the hack: you'd have to patch/modify the source code to actually build something worth using. It shouldn't be much extra effort for users building from orignal source: just a simple './modify' script. And yet you couldn't distribute the result under the name Ion anymore -- unless explicitly permitted by me, outside the license, in which case I'd just show them the terms of the present license. MUAHHAHAHAHAHHAAA }:-> Not sure I'll go for this, but it's a devious little "use their own rules agains them" hack I came up with, which would simplify the license considerably. It should also work better for Ion3plus from which I have no intention of making releases, or responding to support requests of random lusers who probably couldn't install it from the repository anyway. [1]: http://www.debian.org/social_contract [2]: http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php [3]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html -- Tuomo
