A licensing question

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 4/18/06, Victor Skovorodnikov <vic_sk at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  Can the images be licensed for non-commercial purposes while the source
> code can be for commercial as that article indicates?  After all, it is the
> code that would form the basis of my package, not the images

You are picking nits.  The point is that all the copyrighted material
that Fedora distributes must allow for commercial use. Whether that
copyrighted material be images or sounds or sourcecode or whatever...
the copyright license associated with whatever the Fedora project
distributes must allow for commercial use.   Distributing "content"
such as images or sounds which has the burden of "non-commercial" use
restrictions adds just as much complexity to redistribution and is
just as limiting for downstream consumers as "sourcecode" with
non-commercial usage restrictions.

At the end of the day what matters is the downstream consumers ability
to use what the Fedora project provides however they as users see fit,
while also making sure downstream modifications are made available
back to the rest of the Fedora community.  Sure, requiring people to
"share-alike" with their modification is a burden on usage, but a
burden which is counter-balanced by the desire to protect the common
interest of the community to have the modified works available just as
the original was made available.  Non-commercial usage clauses on
ANYTHING in the Fedora project codebase is a burden on usage that has
no counter-balancing function which protects the common community
interests. Non-commericial clauses are arbitrary restrictions that do
nothing but protect the potential commercial interests of the original
authors at the expense of the potential commercial interest of future
community contributors.

-jef