Re: Combining Artistic|GPL-1+ with GPL-2 and LGPL-3+

2009-01-20 Thread Damyan Ivanov
[Please continue to Cc me on replies. Thanks]

-=| Walter Landry, Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 05:08:14AM -0800 |=-
 MJ Ray m...@phonecoop.coop wrote:
  Damyan Ivanov d...@debian.org wrote:
   Most of the code is licensed under the same terms as Perl 
   itself,
  [...]
   In addition to that, some icons are licensed under LGPL-3+, and some 
   more icons are licensed under GPL-2.
  
   From how I understand it, if we choose GPL-2 for the main code, that 
   still leaves the combination of GPL-2 (code and some .png icons) and 
   LGPL-3+ (.png icons). Is such aggregation OK?
  
  If it's mere aggregation, I believe each stays under their own licence.
 
 Just to be clear, if it is not mere aggregation, then it is not ok.
 If the LGPL-3+ icons are required for the program to operate
 correctly, that is a hint that licenses need to be compatible with
 GPL-2.

Reading GPL-2, mere aggregation is when two independent works sit 
on the same volume of a storage or distribution medium.

In the case I am after, both works are in the same upstream tarball, 
and in the same .deb.

The files are separate, i.e. no compilation in the C source -- object 
code sense is taking place. The icons are loaded at runtime and used 
in the user interface.

Does this sound like a mere aggregation?

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Re: Combining Artistic|GPL-1+ with GPL-2 and LGPL-3+

2009-01-20 Thread Damyan Ivanov
[Please continue to Cc me on replies. Thanks]

-=| MJ Ray, Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 02:15:21PM + |=-
 Damyan Ivanov d...@debian.org wrote:
 [...]
  The files are separate, i.e. no compilation in the C source -- 
  object code sense is taking place. The icons are loaded at runtime 
  and used in the user interface.
 
  Does this sound like a mere aggregation?
 
 Yes, in my opinion.  If you can change the icons at runtime without
 ill-effect (within reason - it's OK if the new icons must be the same
 size, for example) and it's just that they're in the same tar volume,
 that seems like mere aggregation to me.
 
 See also http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
 
 I suggest that the icons are used only as runtime data and no
 information is interchanged with them.
 
 Hope that explains,

It does indeed.

Thank you all for helping me put the pieces together.

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Combining Artistic|GPL-1+ with GPL-2 and LGPL-3+

2009-01-14 Thread Damyan Ivanov
[Please Cc me on replies. Thanks]

My upstream uses several licenses and this makes be feel a bit uneasy 
deciding if they can be combined. Please advice.

Most of the code is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself, 
which means either Artistic license, or (at your opinion) GPL (any 
version).

In addition to that, some icons are licensed under LGPL-3+, and some 
more icons are licensed under GPL-2.

From how I understand it, if we choose GPL-2 for the main code, that 
still leaves the combination of GPL-2 (code and some .png icons) and 
LGPL-3+ (.png icons). Is such aggregation OK?


TIA

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Bug#497200: ITP: rt2860-source -- source for RT2860 wireless adapter kernel module

2008-08-30 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Damyan Ivanov [EMAIL PROTECTED]

* Package name: rt2860-source
  Version : 1.7.0.0
  Upstream Author : Ralink Tech Inc
* URL : http://www.ralinktech.com/
* License : GPL-2+  some binary non-free firmware
  Programming Lang: C
  Description : source for RT2860 wireless adapter kernel module

RT2860 is a wireless adapter found particularly in the ASUS EeePC model
901 and above. The package contains the source of a Linux kernel module
for it.


There may be some licensing problems and this is why I CC debian-legal.
All the sources are licensed under GPL-2+, except one file,
include/firmware.h, which is generated from a binary blob and contains
the following notice:

/*
 Copyright (c) 2007, Ralink Technology Corporation 
 All rights reserved. 

 Redistribution.  Redistribution and use in binary form, without 
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are 
 met: 

* Redistributions must reproduce the above copyright notice and the 
following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials 
provided with the distribution. 
* Neither the name of Ralink Technology Corporation nor the names of 
its 
suppliers may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this 
software without specific prior written permission. 
* No reverse engineering, decompilation, or disassembly of this 
software 
is permitted. 

 Limited patent license. Ralink Technology Corporation grants a world-wide, 
 royalty-free, non-exclusive license under patents it now or hereafter 
 owns or controls to make, have made, use, import, offer to sell and 
 sell (Utilize) this software, but solely to the extent that any 
 such patent is necessary to Utilize the software alone, or in 
 combination with an operating system licensed under an approved Open 
 Source license as listed by the Open Source Initiative at 
 http://opensource.org/licenses.  The patent license shall not apply to 
 any other combinations which include this software.  No hardware per 
 se is licensed hereunder. 

 DISCLAIMER.  THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND 
 CONTRIBUTORS AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, 
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND 
 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 
 COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 
 INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, 
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS 
 OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND 
 ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR 
 TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE 
 USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH 
 DAMAGE. 
*/ 
/* AUTO GEN PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY IT */ 
/* AUTO GEN PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY IT */ 


UCHAR FirmwareImage [] = { 
0x02, 0x03, 0x5e, 0x02, 0x02, 0xb1, 0x22, 0x22, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x02, 0x01, 
0x82, 0xff, 0xff, 
.

I did not yet check if this code is actually linked in the GPL-2+
module, but have a bad feeling it it does. Would a compiled GPL source,
including firmware.h be even distributable?

Perhaps the module can be changed to load its firmware from external
file or even not need that nasty firmware.h (there are traces of
support to other hardware and that firmware may be for them).


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Advise about missing copyright info

2007-09-18 Thread Damyan Ivanov
[Please keep CC debian-perl]

Dear debian-legal readers,

Currently, libsys-syslog-perl has the following debian/copyright:

  [...]
  Upstream Author: Sebastien Aperghis-Tramoni

  This package contains the following copyright notice:

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

  The license terms for Perl are as follows:
  [...]

As you see, there is no explicit notice about copyright. I guess the
author information is derived from
http://search.cpan.org/dist/Sys-Syslog/ where it is evident who uploaded
the module on CPAN.

I've already filed a bug[1] upstream, but am wondering whether this
missing copyright notice is a serious bug according to the Policy 2.3:

  [...]
  Therefore a program without a copyright notice is copyrighted and you
  may not do anything to it without risking being sued!
  [...]

Please advise.

[1] http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=29451
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Re: RFC: the new license for IBPP

2006-04-03 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Francesco Poli wrote:
 A package that includes a part which is licensed in a non-free 
 manner does *not* comply with the DFSG. I cannot extract that part 
 of FlameRobin source code (namely the IBPP C++ classes) and 
 exercise the freedoms the DFSG guarantee. Therefore, FlameRobin 
 does not meet the DFSG and cannot be in main, according to the SC.

You can extract IBPP from FlameRobin and do whatever you want with it
as long as it is included in a Hello, World!-probram. Yes, this is a
restriction, but is easily worked around.

 I repeat. My suggestion is: try (harder) to persuade IBPP upstream 
 to adopt the real unmodified Expat license. That way, every concern
 would vanish.

I am trying since November 2005. Not that I have no progress (original
license was IDPL - an MPL clone). This is what upstream says about
original expat:
  I know that some people would prefer IBPP to go with the unchanged
  Expat license (often mistakenly named MIT/BSD license - which is not
  the exact same thing) because it looks so close to that one. But no,
  it won't be. IBPP has its own terms.

and later:
  This discussion is over for me.
  I will have well enough to do with the OSI certification in the
  coming weeks and months.


MJRay, may we have your comments too? Olivier sent me copies of some
off-list discussion in which you tend to agree that new license is ok
for Debian.



Firendly,
dam
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Re: RFC: the new license for IBPP

2006-04-01 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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Josh Triplett wrote:
 Damyan Ivanov wrote:
 
=== The problematic? clause ===
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or
organization (”You”) obtaining a copy of this software and associated
documentation files covered by this license (the “Software”) to use
the Software as part of another work; to modify it for that purpose;
to publish or distribute it, modified or not, for that same purpose;
to permit persons to whom the other work using the Software is
furnished to do so; subject to the following conditions: the above
copyright notice and this complete and unmodified permission notice
shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
Software; You will not misrepresent modified versions of the Software
as being the original.
===
Francesco Poli wrote:

What if I want to modify the library itself and distribute the result by
itself?

This is not permitted, AFAIU.

Why have I to be annoyed by this wrap it in some silly container work
requirement?

Better to adopt the actual Expat license
(http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt), IMHO.

I see your point and I agree. But the author deliberately modified
Expat license to include the above terms.

So the questions is: Is this DFSG-free or not? Please bear in mind
that IBPP is really to be used in FlameRobin's packaging, not by itself.
 
 That particular point, that you only plan to use it with one particular
 piece of software, has no bearing on DFSG-freeness.

I guess my explaination was not clear enough. I follow this re-licensing
effort for so long that I tend to omit the details. Sorry.

IBPP is released only as source (i.e. a set of C++ classes, no .so, no
library). FlameRobin incorporates this released source in its source
tree. So we are talking about packaging FlameRobin, which source
contains some files licensed under the above terms. The rest of
FlameRobin is (soon to be) licensed under unmodified Expat license. And
I don't plan to package IBPP in separate package, but only
flamerobin.deb (with part of the .orig.tar.gz using tha above license)

I am not sure if this makes a difference...

 This license itself seems highly suboptimal, but it *may* follow the
 letter of the DFSG:
 
The license of a Debian component may not restrict any party from
selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate
software distribution containing programs from several different
sources. The license may not require a royalty or other fee for such
sale.
 
 as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing
 programs from several different sources does indeed permit pieces of
 software which do not permit solo distribution, since you can always
 bundle them with a hello world program to make them distributable.
 (This also makes such licensing relatively worthless.)
 
 One question however: does the author intend use the Software as part
 of another work to imply that the work must incorporate or derive from
 the Software, or simply that the Software must occur as part of a larger
 work of some kind, including potentially an aggregate with unrelated
 programs, such as the Debian distribution?  The latter follows the
 letter of the DFSG; the former places a stronger requirement that I
 don't believe the DFSG permits.

I beleive that something like FlameRobin is sought. (i.e. the former).
And this is exactly the context of using the IBPP - as an integral part
of another software. I beleive this is not a problem, since the
FlameRobin package would satisfy both licensing (original Expath and
this modified thingy - the IBPP license) and the Social contract. I
mention SC, because of this text: We promise that the Debian system and
all its components will be free according to these guidelines.. If we
take components to be equal to packages then I beleive[1] the
FlameRobin package fits in SC and DFSG.


Friendly,
dam
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Re: RFC: the new license for IBPP

2006-04-01 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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Francesco Poli wrote:
 On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:48:53 +0300 Damyan Ivanov wrote:
Please bear in mind
that IBPP is really to be used in FlameRobin's packaging, not by
itself.
 
 I see, but imagine which permissions someone would get, if he/she wanted
 to extract IBPP from FlameRobin's source...

(See also my answer to Josh Triplett)

The intention of the author is not to permit the sole usage. IBPP may
be used only as part of another software. And this exactly is my intent
- - packaging FlameRobin, which contains IBPP.


Friendly, dam
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Re: RFC: the new license for IBPP

2006-03-30 Thread Damyan Ivanov

=== The problematic? clause ===
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or
organization (”You”) obtaining a copy of this software and associated
documentation files covered by this license (the “Software”) to use
the Software as part of another work; to modify it for that purpose;
to publish or distribute it, modified or not, for that same purpose;
to permit persons to whom the other work using the Software is
furnished to do so; subject to the following conditions: the above
copyright notice and this complete and unmodified permission notice
shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
Software; You will not misrepresent modified versions of the Software
as being the original.
===
Francesco Poli wrote:
 What if I want to modify the library itself and distribute the result by
 itself?

This is not permitted, AFAIU.

 Why have I to be annoyed by this wrap it in some silly container work
 requirement?
 
 Better to adopt the actual Expat license
 (http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt), IMHO.

I see your point and I agree. But the author deliberately modified
Expat license to include the above terms.

So the questions is: Is this DFSG-free or not? Please bear in mind
that IBPP is really to be used in FlameRobin's packaging, not by itself.



dam
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Re: MPL license

2006-03-27 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Walter Landry wrote:
 Mike Hommey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Sun, Mar 26, 2006 at 04:21:31PM +0200, Joerg Jaspert [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 wrote:
 Hi

 Whats debian-legals position about the MPL?
 Looking at google I see a lot of Summary - non-free and Not really
 non-free mails.
 It is indeed non-free.
 
 It is, in fact, not distributable as an executable by Debian.  It
 requires keeping the source around for every binary for at least six
 months.
 
 It also has problems with choice of venue.

If MPL is cast on stone as non-distributable, I guess I must take the
necessary steps to get firebird2 out of the archive?

firebird2 uses Interbase Public License 1.0 and Initial Developer
Public License (1.0), both of which are MPL-based with Mozilla
Foundation replaced with Borland and Initial developer
respectively. Both IPL and IDPL have source of venue clauses and
requirement to keep source available for some fixed period of time.

I could try convincing upstream to change the license, but one of the
authors is Borland, which, after releasing Interbase under IPL later
closed it again so I guess chances that they re-license is rather
small. No pain in trying, though.

Joerg, please post here ftp-masters' ruling so I know what to do.


Thanks,
dam
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Re: [Flamerobin-devel] License, again

2006-03-23 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Hi, Milan,

[Yet another cross-post to debian-legal, whose comments are needed at
the lower part of this mail. Thanks]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Quoting Damyan Ivanov [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 Yes. If possible, I intend to convince everyone to dual license FR under
 GPL and someting else.

How? If IBPPL1.0 is incompatible with GPL? Whatever licenses are
chosen for FR they all must be compatible with the licensing of IBPP,
right? If IBPPLx.y is made GPL-compatible, theh this is no problem of
course. I for one don't run for GPL for FR, neither IBPP. I'd welcome
GPL, as well as any other license that satisfies Debian Free Software
Guidelines.

 Even if we agree IBPPL1.0 is not compatible with GPL, what about
 (modified)BSD/Expat? I can't see any gotchas in combining those with
 IBPPL1.0
 
 Do you mean: if IBPP is licensed under BSD/Expat license? Well, then
 there is no problem. BSD license is not viral, it only requires that
 license text is included in code. It puts no restrictions on embedding
 it in larger work and relicensing that.
 
 Or you meant for us to release FR under BSD/expat? That one is out of
 the question.
The later. (This is just to clarify what I meant. Not that I insist on
FR being licensed under Expat or something)

 Authors. MPL/IDPL say that modifications must be given to anyone you
 provide with executable version, while GPL says that modifications
 must be
 given to the public.

 You provide changes to the GPL-ed code to the public and changes to
 IBPP to its authors. What's wrong with this?
 
 FR would not have a single license. Parts of it's code would be licensed
 under IBPP license, and it wouldn't be included in main.

I am not sure I understand you completely.

There is ongoing effort to mage IBPP's license suitable for including
IBPP sources and programs using them in Debian/main.

If these efforts give some result, FR's license is still a problem
(being IDPL). That's why I try to discuss FR's licensing at the same
time as IBPP's licensing - to move two tasks in parallel and save a
couple of months.

 I also understand and respect Nando's wishes about commercial use of
 parts
 or entire FR, and I somewhat even agree on that. So, the solution that
 would suit us is:

 1. IBPP changing the about mentioned constraint

 And FR stays IDPL? Still problematic for inclusion in Debian.
 
 No, I've re-read IDPL again, and it does have problems.
 
 What is the difference with (modified)BSD/Expat-like license plus the
 requirement to publish changes (if this desired)?
 
 Here's what we want, but IANAL so I can't make a license out of it:
 
 1. allow anyone to download, copy and redistribute FR source as it is.
 2. if someone makes modifications for his own use, he is not obligated
 to publish them
 3. if someone makes modifications and makes executable version
 available, he must make the modifications available to the same person
 he made executable version available to.
 4. no warranty
 
 IDPL is close to that, but it has problems. Mostly the Californian
 courts, US regulations (not needed at all IMO), and some other problems
 already noted by Debian team.

Alright. Please, folks on debian-legal, can you see any problem
including software with such licensing in Debian? Can you recommend a
license that satisfies the above points and is DFSG-free? To me it
seems like Expat plus point 3 above (but I can't legal-speek-phrase it).



Thanks in advance,
dam
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IBPP license 1.0

2006-03-18 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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[META: This is a cross-post to ibpp-discuss and debian-legal. I'd like
to give direct discussion a chance, since I am rather busy and can't
mediate in a timely fashion]


Olivier, below is another comment about the new license.

When answering, pleace keep CCs.

Just FYI, the freedom X mentioned below is from the definition of Free
software at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
(I had to look for this link and thought it may be useful to mention it
here)


Thanks,
dam


-  Original Message 
Subject: Re: Please comment on IBPP licensing
Resent-Date: Wed,  8 Mar 2006 09:47:00 -0600 (CST)
Resent-From: debian-legal@lists.debian.org
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:46:53 +
From: MJ Ray [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: debian-legal@lists.debian.org
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
References: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Damyan Ivanov [EMAIL PROTECTED] asked for comments on:
 * 0. Definitions
 
   o 0.1. IBPP
 'IBPP' is primarily a set of programming interfaces,
 initially written in the C++ language, which makes it easier to develop
 any other programming work which need to communicate and work with
 Firebird, a SQL-based database engine and server, and possibly other
 similar engines and servers. Further in this document we also name
 'IBPP' the source code itself which implements those interfaces and any
 associated files whatever their nature.
 
   o 0.2. TIP
 'TIP' is the company T.I.P. Group S.A., a legal entity,
 registered in the Kingdom of Belgium under the enterprise identification
 number 0.429.942.927. Contact information: http://www.tipgroup.com.

Most of the two above should be in README and AUTHORS, in my opinion.

   o 0.3. Authors
 'Authors' is the college of private persons or legal
 entities, including TIP, who at least once contributed to IBPP.

College? What law is this drafted for?

 * 1. Copyrights
 
   The very initial version of IBPP (0.9) was released in the year
 2000 by TIP. Through this initial contribution, TIP holds a Copyright
 (c) 2000 on that original version of IBPP.
 
   In addition, each and every private person or legal entity,
 including TIP, who since contributed or contribute to IBPP hold a shared
 Copyright (c) year of contribution with TIP on that portion of code
 they contribute, wether the contribution is made by modification or
 addition to the source code or associated files.

Spelling error s/wether/whether/ already. First of many.

 * 2. Rights
 
   Without damage of the duties exposed at article 3., the Authors

Confusing wording: lawyerbomb?

 hereby grant the following permissions, free of charge, to any private
 person or legal entity (hereafter You):

Permission not granted to public legal entities (UK = plcs, royal charter
corporations IIRC).  Breaks DFSG 5 (No Discrimination Against Persons) or
6 (No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavour).

   o 2.1. Right to Use
 To use (edit when required, compile and link) the IBPP
 source code as part of a larger programming work which effectively makes
 use of some or all of the functionnalities offered by IBPP.

Restriction on use: we might not agree that something is effectively
making use. Lawyerbomb, possibly breaking DFSG 3 (Derived Works).

   o 2.2. Right to Modify
 To develop modifications or additions which enhance or fix IBPP.

Restriction on modification: we might not agree that something is an
enhancement. Lawyerbomb, possibly breaking DFSG 3 (Derived Works).

   o 2.3. Right to Publish
 To publish the IBPP source code along with your own source
 code which uses it.

No permission to copy alone? Might not be free software at all
(doesn't give freedom 2) but can be made so trivially.

 * 3. Duties
 
   o 3.1. Duty to give modifications back to IBPP Authors
 Any modification or addition done to IBPP will be submitted
 to the Authors, so that those modifications or additions can be
 reviewed, possibly modified or fixed, and eventually merged in a new
 version of IBPP, if the modification is found by the Authors to be of
 interest to the IBPP users community.

Forced donation upstream of work. I regard this as a payment or
royalty on derived works, breaking DFSG 1 (Free Redistribution).
I know others disagree, but I don't understand their reasoning.

   o 3.2. Duty to play by the rules when publishing the IBPP
 source code
 When You publish the IBPP source code with your own source
 code which uses it, You must also publish this license.txt file and You
 must not remove any of the licensing and copyright texts located near
 the beginning of the IBPP source code files.

No-op in many (all?) copyright laws.

   o 3.3. Duty to free IBPP Authors from any responsability
 When You use IBPP in your programming works, You implicitely
 agree to free the Authors from any

Re: Please comment on IBPP licensing

2006-03-08 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Francesco Poli wrote:
 Apart from clause 3.1 (which must be dropped anyway, if DFSG-freeness is
 sought), this license seems to try to grant a set of permissions not too
 different from the ones granted by the Expat a.k.a. MIT license
 (http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt).
 
 If I were you, I would try to persuade upstream to adopt the Expat
 license, rather than this contorted and unclear license.
 Writing a new license is a difficult and long task and should be avoided
 unless strictly necessary. Adopting an existing, clear and well
 understood license (such as the Expat one) is almost always far better.

Thank you Francesco, Walter and Justin,

Unfortunatelly upstream seem to insist on their license and what's worse,
resist to changing it. Anyway, I'll try mu super-suggestive powers to make them
see the spoon melt :)

Thanks again,
dam
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Please comment on IBPP licensing

2006-03-07 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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Hi,

The following license is used for IBPP[1] - a library for working with
Firebird/Interbase database servers.

This library is included (at source level) in FlameRobin[2] - a
graphical tool for working with Firebird/Interbase which I intent to
package.

Flaberobin's license is not yet clear, but is expected to follow IBPP.

Either way, I need your comments about DFSG-compatibility of IBPP
license. Note that this license is newly accomodated after leaving MPL
(partly due to me arguing against MPL), so the intent is to make it free.

License can be found at [3], attached here for reference.

My humble opinion is that it is almost DFSG-free. The only problem
section is 3.1 (requires changes to be sent to upstream).

There are some things that are implicit (defining copyrights f.ex.),
which IMHO don't belong to the license, but do no harm either.


Thanks in advance for your comments,
dam
[1] http://www.ibpp.org/
[2] http://flamerobin.sf.net/
[3] http://www.editthis.info/ibpp/index.php/License
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* 0. Definitions

  o 0.1. IBPP
'IBPP' is primarily a set of programming interfaces,
initially written in the C++ language, which makes it easier to develop
any other programming work which need to communicate and work with
Firebird, a SQL-based database engine and server, and possibly other
similar engines and servers. Further in this document we also name
'IBPP' the source code itself which implements those interfaces and any
associated files whatever their nature.

  o 0.2. TIP
'TIP' is the company T.I.P. Group S.A., a legal entity,
registered in the Kingdom of Belgium under the enterprise identification
number 0.429.942.927. Contact information: http://www.tipgroup.com.

  o 0.3. Authors
'Authors' is the college of private persons or legal
entities, including TIP, who at least once contributed to IBPP.

* 1. Copyrights

  The very initial version of IBPP (0.9) was released in the year
2000 by TIP. Through this initial contribution, TIP holds a Copyright
(c) 2000 on that original version of IBPP.

  In addition, each and every private person or legal entity,
including TIP, who since contributed or contribute to IBPP hold a shared
Copyright (c) year of contribution with TIP on that portion of code
they contribute, wether the contribution is made by modification or
addition to the source code or associated files.

* 2. Rights

  Without damage of the duties exposed at article 3., the Authors
hereby grant the following permissions, free of charge, to any private
person or legal entity (hereafter You):

  o 2.1. Right to Use
To use (edit when required, compile and link) the IBPP
source code as part of a larger programming work which effectively makes
use of some or all of the functionnalities offered by IBPP.

  o 2.2. Right to Modify
To develop modifications or additions which enhance or fix IBPP.

  o 2.3. Right to Publish
To publish the IBPP source code along with your own source
code which uses it.

* 3. Duties

  o 3.1. Duty to give modifications back to IBPP Authors
Any modification or addition done to IBPP will be submitted
to the Authors, so that those modifications or additions can be
reviewed, possibly modified or fixed, and eventually merged in a new
version of IBPP, if the modification is found by the Authors to be of
interest to the IBPP users community.

  o 3.2. Duty to play by the rules when publishing the IBPP
source code
When You publish the IBPP source code with your own source
code which uses it, You must also publish this license.txt file and You
must not remove any of the licensing and copyright texts located near
the beginning of the IBPP source code files.

  o 3.3. Duty to free IBPP Authors from any responsability
When You use IBPP in your programming works, You implicitely
agree to free the Authors from any and all responsability. You fully
endorse IBPP and assume all consequences of using it in your programming
works. This goes to the extent that, should the IBPP code be found to
infringe on the copyright or patent of any third-party entity, you
assume the entire responsability regarding your own programming works
which use IBPP. You always a least have the final solution not to use
IBPP anymore in your programming works.

* 4. New versions of this License

  TIP is the only entity who can publish new versions of this
license and attach such new license versions to any future version of
IBPP. Though if doing so, TIP cannot remove any right previously granted
by this version 1.0

Re: Copyright infringement of debian's logo

2006-01-12 Thread Damyan Ivanov
jeremiah foster wrote:
 This link[0] shows a web site using a slightly modified version of the
 debian open license logo. The modification is that the logo is blue.
 Does this constitute a violation of debian's copyright and does debian
 care?

This comes to this list every now and then. See the arvhices.

IIRC, lst time it was suggested that this is not a copy of the debian logo, but
a logo created using the same brush and the same spiral tool in Adobe
Illustrator as the logo of Debian.


dam
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Re: QPL and non-free

2005-12-20 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Glenn Maynard wrote:
 And that's where they really differ: different people implement them.
 Is to redistribute the work, you must agree to a venue of Norway

Isn't the choice of venue clause one of the reasons for MPL to be considered
problematic for Debian? If it is bad for MPL, then it is bad for QPL too, right?



dam
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Re: sugarcrm licence issue

2005-11-10 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Glenn Maynard wrote:
 On Thu, Nov 10, 2005 at 03:13:31PM +, Matthew Garrett wrote:

Various people believe the MPL to be non-free, but there's code under it
in the main archive at the moment so it's unlikely that an upload would
be rejected for that reason. Exhibit B basically says You can't call it
 
 
 The code under it in the main archive is there under the claim that it's
 currently in the process of being dual-licensed under the GPL, so it should
 be very likely.
 
 (We probably agree that such a relicensing is taking far too long for a DFSG-
 fixing grace period, even for Mozilla.)

Are you proposing that any other (i.e. non-Mozilla) package in main,
that is licensed under MPL or MPL-derivate has to be expelled?

I maintain firebird2[1] packages and I'd be very badly surprised if I'd
have to ask for its removal. firebird is licensed under Interbase Public
license (IPL), and new files are under Initial Developer Public License.
Both of them are MPL-clones with all the nasty source-of-venue and
keep-source-available-12-months clauses. See them at the Copyright link
at [1] (too long to be posted here)

Relicensing is not an option IMHO, at least for firebird2. I have very
bad feelings about asking Borland to change their license :-(


dam
[1] http://packages.qa.debian.org/f/firebrid2.html



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Re: sugarcrm licence issue

2005-11-10 Thread Damyan Ivanov
Glenn Maynard wrote:
 On Thu, Nov 10, 2005 at 09:18:20PM +0200, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
 
Are you proposing that any other (i.e. non-Mozilla) package in main,
that is licensed under MPL or MPL-derivate has to be expelled?
 
 I'm merely agreeing with the general sentiment that the MPL is non-free.
 That does mean I agree that all software only available under the MPL
 has to be relicensed or removed.  I don't have the energy or motivation to
 actually try to push for this (also, IANADD), but if Mozilla officially

I am not a DD either. I maintain firebird2 for a couple of months.
Francesco Loverigne is sponsoring the uploads.

I maintain firebird2[1] packages and I'd be very badly surprised if I'd
have to ask for its removal. firebird is licensed under Interbase Public
license (IPL), and new files are under Initial Developer Public License.
Both of them are MPL-clones with all the nasty source-of-venue and
keep-source-available-12-months clauses. See them at the Copyright link
at [1] (too long to be posted here)
 
 Do you agree that the license is non-free?  (It sounds like you do, calling
 those clauses nasty and all.)

I call it unfriendly. I'd be a lot happier it firebird2 was under GPL
or BSD-like license. I hate reading tens of pages of legal text that I
barely understand.

As of being DFSG-free, I have mixed feelings. I see marginal truth in
the interpretation of the source-of-venue clause as a hidden cost.
The other main concern (12 months availability of source code, or
6-months if new version is released) imposes restrictions on the archive
that I beleive are unfullfilable at the moment (and in forseeable
future). Breaking this requirement can be avoided by mirroring the
MPL-licensed parts of the archive somewhere that this requirement can be
satisfied.

Add to this that the company I work for needs firebird for its business
and you'll see why I put my efforts in maintenance of firebird, despite
the unpleasant license.

Hopefully, this clarifies my position enough.


dam



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Re: To MPL or not.

2005-09-19 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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George Danchev wrote:
 On Saturday 17 September 2005 13:45, MJ Ray wrote:
Damyan Ivanov [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

IDPL 1.0 is MPL-derivate.
http://flamerobin.sourceforge.net/license.html
http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.0.txt
 
 I think MPL is doomed. Nothing to comment about it.
 
My question is: Will FlameRobin be accepted in main?

Only ftpmasters can say for sure. I think this is a practical problem
for ftpmasters and mirror operators:

3.2. Availability of Source Code. [...]

and I think this is a lawyerbomb:

3.4. Intellectual Property Matters

Or should I try to convince upstream to change the license?

I think so, if you can. Might be a difficult sell, though.

Is IDPL 1.0 more DFSG-friendly than MPL 1.0? (I make this
assumption because noone objected against recently uploaded firebird2)

What are the differences?

That assumption probably isn't reliable.
 
 Agreed. This could be classified as legal bug.
 
 About IDPL:
 
 #11 - choice-of-venue - bad.
 #13 - multiple-licensed code - look promising. We should try to convince 
 upstream to double licensed the whole thing with GPL.

Thank you both for sharing your opinions.

I'll see what I can do in convincing upstream of FlameRobin/IBPP to at
least dual-license their work. I'll have to achieve the right attitude
and find the right words, though.


dam
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To MPL or not.

2005-09-17 Thread Damyan Ivanov
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Hi,

I've packaged FlameRobin - wx GUI for manipulating Firebird databases.
Upstream: www.flamerobin.org

The upstream source is licensed under Initial Developer Public License
1.0. There is also an external library, which source is included in
upstream and which is licensed under MPL 1.0.

IDPL 1.0 is MPL-derivate.
http://flamerobin.sourceforge.net/license.html
http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.0.txt

I've recently prepared an updated package for firebird2 - the Firebird
server and associated libraries and utilities. It is also licensed under
IDPL 1.0 and the upload (kindly sponsored by Christohper Martin) was
accepted in main.

My question is: Will FlameRobin be accepted in main? Or should I try to
convince upstream to change the license? Is IDPL 1.0 more DFSG-friendly
than MPL 1.0? (I make this assumption because noone objected against
recently uploaded firebird2)


Thanks for your advice,
dam
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DBD::InterBase licence

2004-06-15 Thread Damyan Ivanov

--[Cc: me, I am not subscibed]--

Hi,

I am considering DBD::InterBase perl module and I am stuck with its license.

(http://search.cpan.org/src/EDPRATOMO/DBD-InterBase-0.43/InterBase.pm)
--
Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Edwin Pratomo

You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file,
with the exception that it cannot be placed on a CD-ROM or similar media
for commercial distribution without the prior approval of the author.
--

IMHO the above exception seems to contradict with first clause of DFSG:

Free Redistribution
The license of a Debian component may not restrict any party from 
selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate 
software distribution containing programs from several different 
sources. The license may not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.




Since I am not a lawer, and since the policy suggests to ask here if in 
doubt, I am asking for your opinion. Is the above license DFSG-compliant 
or not?



thanks,
dam
--[Cc: me, I am not subscibed]--

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Re: DBD::InterBase licence

2004-06-15 Thread Damyan Ivanov

MJ Ray wrote:

On 2004-06-15 14:23:06 +0100 Damyan Ivanov [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file,
with the exception that it cannot be placed on a CD-ROM or similar media
for commercial distribution without the prior approval of the author.


This seems confused. GPL+non-comm-dist is not satisfiable by anyone but 
the author IIRC (so why bother stating it?), so that leaves 
Artistic+non-comm-dist, which is still non-free.


It might even be unable to go in non-free, as or similar media looks 
like a huge lawyerbomb. Is any disk similar to a CD-ROM? Is it if that 
disk is in a server connected to the internet and sent over 
paid-for-transfer connections?


Big mess, yes. I'll try to contact the author(s) and see if they can 
reconsider the license. Interestingly enough, in the README the evil 
additions are missing... just Artistic/GPL. Blah.



thanks again,
dam

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