Re: License Questions

[Rob Taylor <rob.taylor@codethink.co.uk>]

Mathias Hasselmann wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Sparse uses The Open Software License v. 1.1 which contains this clause:
> 
>         9) Acceptance and Termination. If You distribute copies of the
>         Original Work or a Derivative Work, You must make a reasonable
>         effort under the circumstances to obtain the express and
>         volitional assent of recipients to the terms of this License.
> 
> What does this mean for hosting a public git repository[1] to organize
> sparse patches? Do I have to put some "Accept License" page in front 
> of it? How do I force git to show that "Accept License" page when
> downloading from that repository? 
> 
> What does this clause mean for sending patches to the mailing list. 
> Shouldn't the patches be attached as password protected source archive
> and the message contain something like "By extracting that archive you
> declare to obey the terms of The Open Software License"?
> 
> Maybe that password thing is a solution for making git repositories 
> OSL compliant?

Oh dear, I just found out that Debian considers OSL 1.1 non-free, though
not for this clause (which does seem particularly onerous), but for
clause 10.

That could be a problem for us GLib guys, as that would force gnome into
contrib!

Rob

> Thank you,
> Mathias
> 
> [1] http://taschenorakel.de/git/sparse


-- 
Rob Taylor, Codethink Ltd. -  http://codethink.co.uk