From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] GIT 1.5.4 Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:02:26 -0500 Message-ID: <87y79wa3a5.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> References: <7vmyqk563z.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> <20080207123108.GA12009@bit.office.eurotux.com> <20080207130715.GA14000@bit.office.eurotux.com> <7v1w7ooes3.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> <20080207185923.GC28753@bit.office.eurotux.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Cc: Luciano Rocha , Junio C Hamano , Steffen Prohaska , Git Mailing List , msysGit To: Johannes Schindelin X-From: grbounce-SUPTvwUAAABqUyiVh9Fi-Slj5a_0adWQ=gcvm-msysgit=m.gmane.org-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org Thu Feb 07 22:03:34 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvm-msysgit@m.gmane.org Received: from wa-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.146.251]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JNDu1-0004Lo-3q for gcvm-msysgit@m.gmane.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:03:25 +0100 Received: by wa-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id n36so6719549wag.21 for ; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:02:56 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlegroups.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:x-sender:x-apparently-to:received:received:received-spf:authentication-results:received:from:to:cc:subject:references:x-habeas-swe-9:x-habeas-swe-8:x-habeas-swe-7:x-habeas-swe-6:x-habeas-swe-5:x-habeas-swe-4:x-habeas-swe-3:x-habeas-swe-2:x-habeas-swe-1:date:in-reply-to:message-id:user-agent:mime-version:content-type:sender:precedence:x-google-loop:mailing-list:list-id:list-post:list-help:list-unsubscribe; bh=Eg8Zuce8kxMufG64pkyKud3d9EH1mO/KUETZgqKqPqs=; b=WuwJdilExFt01SMV5FGRVYXtIAGj8NfD/ps3R8lGEMAqs1vNrabIeMOvWMqTrwDn5Vh2vktelmuUUOACP77kz2IDpoqiEqnLQ3HO7SEpOtEmfXm5LUq8RBrISfACa0XsXN+Wsh7KcISgAPlg+iBm1hFxHmESTa4RUPIDqs9E5E4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlegroups.com; s=beta; h=x-sender:x-apparently-to:received-spf:authentication-results:from:to:cc:subject:references:x-habeas-swe-9:x-habeas-swe-8:x-habeas-swe-7:x-habeas-swe-6:x-habeas-swe-5:x-habeas-swe-4:x-habeas-swe-3:x-habeas-swe-2:x-habeas-swe-1:date:in-reply-to:message-id:user-agent:mime-version:content-type:sender:precedence:x-google-loop:mailing-list:list-id:list-post:list-help:list-unsubscribe; b=Sp8nzr4eEVRn6gle/DYcpTGgA0CArrYC+pu7UXA1BFl4NjleQbWNZ6644/f+BpMHEZCeQz5w1SfWYE3VaegcZlAdoW1VscES8/m9YIuD5h0KZiafim2ZHwQaZK3zBH62PwQQvSaoXMf2eb9Wqom90xGM87EfWFWuaJQ35e/4oO8= Received: by 10.115.109.1 with SMTP id l1mr826032wam.28.1202418173404; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:02:53 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.106.159.22 with SMTP id h22gr1670pre; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:02:53 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: jbms-D+Gtc/HYRWM@public.gmane.org X-Apparently-To: msysgit-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org Received: by 10.35.108.12 with SMTP id k12mr25774607pym.3.1202418173173; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:02:53 -0800 (PST) Received: from deleuze.hcoop.net (deleuze.hcoop.net [69.90.123.67]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id z53si7484293pyg.1.2008.02.07.13.02.51; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:02:53 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 69.90.123.67 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of jbms-D+Gtc/HYRWM@public.gmane.org) client-ip=69.90.123.67; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 69.90.123.67 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of jbms-D+Gtc/HYRWM@public.gmane.org) smtp.mail=jbms-D+Gtc/HYRWM@public.gmane.org Received: from jbms.wv.cc.cmu.edu ([128.237.255.60] helo=localhost) by deleuze.hcoop.net with esmtpsa (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1JNDt6-0000FJ-0Y; Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:02:28 -0500 X-Habeas-SWE-9: mark in spam to . X-Habeas-SWE-8: Message (HCM) and not spam. Please report use of this X-Habeas-SWE-7: warrant mark warrants that this is a Habeas Compliant X-Habeas-SWE-6: email in exchange for a license for this Habeas X-Habeas-SWE-5: Sender Warranted Email (SWE) (tm). The sender of this X-Habeas-SWE-4: Copyright 2002 Habeas (tm) X-Habeas-SWE-3: like Habeas SWE (tm) X-Habeas-SWE-2: brightly anticipated X-Habeas-SWE-1: winter into spring In-Reply-To: (Johannes Schindelin's message of "Thu, 7 Feb 2008 19:08:26 +0000 (GMT)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.50 (gnu/linux) Sender: msysgit-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org Precedence: bulk X-Google-Loop: groups Mailing-List: list msysgit-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org; contact msysgit-owner-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org List-Id: List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: , Archived-At: Johannes Schindelin writes: > Hi, > On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, Luciano Rocha wrote: >> I was asking for the reasons for the installer being like it is, not for >> you to change your mind. > I am sorry: I misunderstood. > Two reasons: we stay on the safe side (because no lawyer could now > possible say that we forgot to present the license), and we want to give > the Git installer some "professional" look-and-feel ;-) It is not unreasonable, I suppose, to display the license text in the installer program, though I think it is sufficient to provide the license in a simple LICENSE file, and it is hard to imagine anyone actually wanting to read the license text while installing git. I think it is not a good idea for a nice free software program like git to show license text in a click-wrap way, as that will only give credence to click-wrap licenses. As far as the "professional" look and feel, rather than make git seem more like the usual proprietary program (if you wanted to go that route, perhaps you should bundle a root kit/"copy protection mechanism"/adware/spyware like companies will often do :) ), I'd suggest making it seem much _better_ than the usual proprietary program: the user can look at the opportunity to install a program without having to "agree" to onerous terms as a breath of fresh air. As has been mentioned, installing and running the program is permitted by fair use, and thus assuming he already has a copy of the software, legally there is no need for the user to agree to any additional terms before using the software. The traditional EULA attempts to use technical means to prevent the user from exercising his fair use rights; in particular, it attempts to force the user to agree to certain terms for essentially no compensation, as he already has fair use permission to use the software anyway. Naturally, such use of technical means is completely antithetical to the idea of free software. -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard