Re: Final text of GPL v3 (original) (raw)

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:20:56 -0700 Steve Langasek wrote:

On Sat, Jun 30, 2007 at 01:05:21AM +0200, Francesco Poli wrote: [...]

[...]

  1. Conveying Modified Source Versions. [...] d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work need not make them do so.

Clause 5d is definitely worse than the corresponding clause 2c in GPLv2.

No, it's different from GPLv2 2c only in that it's extended to "interactive user interfaces" instead of just programs that "read commands interactively when run".

Clause 2c of GPLv2 is already an inconvenience and border-line with respect to DFSG-freeness. This is, at least, my humble opinion on the matter. "Border-line" does not mean that it fails the DFSG, but that it's very close to fail.

Extending this clause from interfaces that "read commands interactively" to every kind of "interactive user interface" is really making things worse, which is exactly what I commented.

Compare with the obnoxious advertising clause of the 4-clause BSD license: it's an inconvenience close to fail the DFSG, IMO. But we accept it as DFSG-free. However, I would not be happy to see a license that extends this restriction to a wider scenario.

[...]

This clause is very close to fail DFSG#3. Hence, this is possibly a Freeness issue.

It's absurd to say that this requirement is permissible in the GPLv2 but not in the GPLv3.

I didn't say that. It's not exaclty the same requirement and I didn't say that it's necessarily non-free.

Clause 2c of GPLv2 is close to fail the DFSG, but passes. Clause 5d of GPLv3 is worse (since it's more restrictive, being extended to more cases), and hence it's even closer to fail the DFSG. Whether it fails or passes is to be decided: I simply said "possibly", you say it's OK. Let's see what others think...

This clause could be not enough to protect recipients from patent lawsuits, and thus make the work fail several DFSG, when there are actively enforced patents infringed by the work.

Um, no. The DFSG does not require indemnification against third-party claims; an actively-enforced patent may require us to not distribute the work at all, but that's not a question of DFSG-freeness of the work.

Mmmmh, if one cannot redistribute a work (because of patents or whatever), I think it fails DFSG#1...

DFSG#1 says "The license of a Debian component may not restrict [...]", so maybe one can argue that the copyright license cannot be blamed for patent restrictions. But DFSG#1 does not talk about "copyright license", merely about "license". If there are actively enforced patents, I not only need a copyright license in order to redistribute, but also a patent license. If the patent license forbids me to redistribute, I think the work fails DFSG#1; if no patent license is available to me, I am not allowed to redistribute, and consequently the work again fails DFSG#1.

Or, at least, this is how I used to understand it...

-- http://frx.netsons.org/doc/nanodocs/testing_workstation_install.html Need to read a Debian testing installation walk-through? ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4

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