Below are excerpts of the Perl Artistic Licence (PERL)
and my corresponding comments (Alain) below each one of these excerpts.
PERL: The "Perl Artistic License"
Alain: The "OpenCard (OC) Licence"
PERL: The intent of this document is to state the conditions under
which the Perl Package may be copied, such that the Copyright Holder
maintains some semblance of artistic control over its development,
while giving Perl users the right to use and distribute Perl in a
more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make reasonable
modifications.
Alain: Simply substitute the word "Perl" with the word "OC" to adapt it
to our purposes.
PERL: "Package" refers to the collection of Perl-kit files distributed
by the Copyright Holder, and derivatives OF THAT COLLECTION OF FILES
created through textual modification.
Alain: The Perl licencing only applies to the files distributed by the
Copyright Holder.
PERL:"Standard Version" refers to such a Package if it has not been
modified, or has been modified as specified below.
Alain: The Standard Version of OC is the version of OC officially
mandated by the OODL and subject to its licencing terms. It is this
version that can and should be redistributed freely.
PERL: "Copyright Holder" is whoever is named in the copyright or
copyrights for the Perl package.
Alain: We haven't worked this one out yet. Can we collectively be
designated as the Copyright Holder, without incorporating ourselves?
PERL: "Reasonable copying fee" is whatever you can justify on the basis
of media cost, duplication charges, time of people involved, and so on.
Alain: Which should be next-to-nothing, hopefully. I don't believe that
any party (except ourselves perhaps) should make a "healthy" profit
merely by re-packaging our work. But "that's the way the ball bounces"
as they say.
PERL: You will not be required to justify it to the Copyright Holder,
but only to the computing community at large as a market that must bear
the fee.)
Alain: To proceed otherwise would burden both the User and the
Copyright Holder with lots of potential litigation. Good clause!
PERL: "Freely Available" means that no fee is charged for the item
itself, though there may be fees involved in handling the item...
Alain: OC cannot be sold as-such. Only the afferent services can be
charged for. Sounds good to me!
PERL: It also means that recipients of the item may redistribute it
under the same conditions they received it.
Alain: OK.
PERL: 1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form
of the Standard Version of this Perl Package without restriction,
provided that you duplicate all of the original copyright notices and
associated disclaimers.
Alain: OK.
PERL: 2. You may apply bug fixes, portability fixes and other
modifications derived from the Public Domain or from the Copyright
Holder. A Package modified in such a way shall still be considered the
Standard Version.
Alain: OK.
PERL: 3. You may otherwise modify your copy of this Perl Package in any
way, provided that you insert a prominent notice in each changed file
stating how and when you changed that file,...
Alain: OK.
PERL: ... and provided that you do at least ONE of the following:
Alain: Only ONE option is necessary for conformance, and concerns only
the files distributed by the Copyright Holder.
PERL: a) place your modifications in the Public Domain or otherwise
make them Freely Available, such as by posting said modifications to
Usenet or an equivalent medium, or placing the modifications on a major
archive site such as uunet.uu.net, or by allowing the Copyright Holder
to include your modifications in the Standard Version of the Perl
Package.
Alain: If the modification that you made to one of the files
distributed with the Standard OC package is a BUG fix, the I would
advise that these be made freely available.
PERL: b) use the modified Perl Package only within your corporation or
organization.
Alain: Ok so you have modified or specialized the Standard Version of
OC which gives your enterprise a strategic advantage. You're allowed to
keep it, without sharing it with the community, as long as you're not
selling it.
PERL: c) rename any non-standard executables so the names do not
conflict with standard executables, which must also be provided, and
provide a separate manual page for each non-standard executable that
clearly documents how it differs from the Standard Version.
Alain: Reasonable. Non-standard modification to the Standard Version of
OC must not conflict with or override the Standard Version of OC. Such
modifications should be flagged and documented (especially if these
modifications are quirky) such that it is clear that this is not the
Standard Version of OC (to protect our reputation amongst other
things).
PERL: d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright
Holder.
Alain: A door left open that maximizes our flexibility. I like it, but
it might be somewhat complicated given that we are a collective without
any formal legal status (yet?).
PERL: 4. You may distribute the programs of this Perl Package in object
code or executable form, provided that you do at least ONE of the
following:
Alain: Only ONE option is necessary for conformance, and concerns only
the files distributed by the Copyright Holder.
PERL: a) distribute a Standard Version of the executables and lib
files, together with instructions (in the manual page or equiv) on
where to get the Standard Version.
Alain: No problem.
PERL: b) accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of
the Perl Package with your modifications.
Alain: This wouldn't be my choice.
PERL: c) accompany any non-standard executables with their
corresponding Standard Version executables, giving the non-standard
executables non-standard names, and clearly documenting the differences
in manual pages (or equivalent), together with instructions on where to
get the Standard Version.
Alain: Quite reasonable, especially if "documenting the differences"
does not imply that you have to expose HOW you did it. Just the WHAT
and the WHY.
PERL: d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright
Holder.
Alain: SEE my open door comment above.
PERL: 5. You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any distribution
of this Perl Package. You may charge any fee you choose for support of
this Perl Package. You may not charge a fee for this Perl Package
itself...
Alain: OK.
PERL: ... However, you may distribute this Perl Package in aggregate
with other (possibly commercial) programs as part of a larger (possibly
commercial) software distribution provided that you do not advertise
this Perl Package as a product of your own.
Alain: Excellent! This was the main sticking point for me. All that is
required is that I don't fraudulently advertise that OC is my product.
PERL: 6. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced
as output from the programs of this Perl Package do not automatically
fall under the copyright of this Perl Package, but belong to whomever
generated them, and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated
with this Perl Package.
Alain: Superb! This is precisely what I struggling for.
PERL: 7. C subroutines supplied by you and linked into this Perl
Package in order to emulate subroutines and variables of the language
defined by this Perl Package shall not be considered part of this Perl
Package, but are the equivalent of input as in Paragraph 6, ...
Alain: Linked Libraries, plugins, etc ... do not automatically fall
under the copyright of OC either.
PERL: ... provided these subroutines do not change the language in any
way that would cause it to fail the regression tests for the language.
Alain: It is laudable to protect the integrity of OC, but this
particular segment of the clause could be difficult to implement. As
someone recently asked "Does that mean that we have to formally define
OC", and it would also be an enforcement nightmare.
PERL: 8. The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to endorse or
promote products derived from this software without specific prior
written permission.
Alain: Basic respect in my book.
PERL: 9. This PERL PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Alain: Nothing controversial about the Disclaimer part of the licence.
No one is responsible for anything. No warranty is provided nor
implied.
Alain: I vote for the Perl Artistic Licence.
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