SGI

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 14:58 -0700, Wart wrote:
> Can someone explain to this legally-challenged person what prevents the 
> SGI Free Software License B from being acceptable in Fedora?

From: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/

The SGI Free Software License B, although its name says "free", is not a
free software License. It has three major problems. 1. It restricts its
patent license to unmodified versions of the software. 2. It terminates
if your use of the software infringes copyrights or patents which are
not SGI's. This is problematic because it gives SGI grounds to sue you
even when you have done nothing to them. 3. The license requires you to
inform SGI of legal problems with the software. This violates your
privacy rights, and can conflict with professional confidentiality
requirements, such as attorney-client privilege.

To put it simply: code under SGI Free B cannot be modified without
violating the license.

~spot