D1x license

[Michael Wiktowy]

Michael A. Peters wrote:

>On Fri, 2005-04-29 at 14:08 -0400, Michael Wiktowy wrote:
>
>  
>
>>There is a middle ground that would likely make everyone's life easier. 
>>Ensuring clear and consistent marking of the license type in the rpm 
>>package info would make non-commercial variants much easier to filter 
>>out with a simple script.
>>    
>>
>
>Or such packages could go in rpm.livna.org.
>Putting them in rpm.livna.org IMHO is a much better solution - because
>there can not be scenarios where packages that are otherwise free link
>against them, and thus are not distributable.
>  
>
<strawman snipped>

I think you are talking apples and oranges here. In my mind, "some 
restrictions on the distribution of packages" does not equal "totally 
illegal to distribute in some countries with screwed up IP laws". AFAIK, 
livna.org is intended for the latter and probably can't even by linked 
to directly in the Fedora installer for fear of 
contributory-yadda-yadda-yadda (sorry for the legal jargon ;]).

While I totally agree with you that allowing non-commercial restrictions 
on packages in Extras adds complexity to the repackaging of Extras for 
commercial purposes. I don't think that the aversion to that complexity 
justifies the complete exclusion of those packages from Extras.

In any case, looking at 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackagingGuidelines , it would seem that 
written permission to distribute the binary datafile *without 
restriction* is needed from the author anyways. So to comply with that 
condition either, D1x engine is put in Extras and links to code obtained 
from non-Extras sources (with a stub package to link to if complete 
dependency closure is required within Extras+Core ... I didn't find that 
restriction anywhere) or permission is obtained from the author to 
distribute the binary datafile without restriction (including 
non-commercial restrictions I would assume). So unless there is 
willingness to modify the guidelines, it appears black and white as it 
stands.

/Mike