[Demexp-dev] Re: CDuce and its QPL v1.0 license

[David MENTRE]

Hello,

Alain Frisch <address@hidden> writes:

> The page you mention says that the status of the QPL for Debian folks is
> still unsettled, not that it has been flagged non-free.

Right, but several softwares have been banned from debian main because
of QPL v1.0 license.

E.g.: http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/10/msg00009.html

> As for as I understand, you will have the same licensing problem for
> OCaml. How do you address it ?

In fact, the non-free points of the QPL have been addressed very
recently for the OCaml 4.08 release (I feared at that time that the
debian project would remove ocaml from debian). I join to this email the
relevant copyright file. I also include a diff that details the changed
points (in short, a point on clause 6c and the choice of law).

Frédéric, could you provide Alain with relevant pointers on
debian-legal?

> I have no strong political position concerning the CDuce
> licence. Especially, I feel that the runtime support library could have
> another
> license (the problem is that it shares mostly all the source code with
> the compiler).

Indeed, as our project is under GPL, the runtime support library part
should be under a GPL-compatible license.

As far as OCaml is concerned, the OCaml library is under LGPL.

I'm wondering why you have chosen the QPL instead of a more "classic"
license (BSD-like, (L)GPL)? To force derivative software to be a diff
against your source? But one value of the free software community is to
acknowledge the external contributions.

As a general remark, I tend to think that the free softwares make a
general pool where developers (like us) can take in it and contribute to
it. This is the strength of free software.  Any license that divide this
pool into incompatible clusters are not helping free software and the
underlying philosophy (share knowledge, ...).


> Anyway, the issue needs to be discussed with other
> leaders of the CDuce project, so I cannot give an immediate
> answer.

I understand.

> Still, I'll be interested to know your position concerning OCaml
> license.

I hope I've been clear.


Once again, I'm not fond of those license issues. But I don't want to
use CDuce and then be forced at a latter time to remove it due to
licensing issues. I don't want to "force" you to change your license to
fit our project needs. I just try to bring to you the issue we have with
your software, so that you can take your decision knowing all the
problem parameters.


Yours,
david
-- 
pub  1024D/A3AD7A2A 2004-10-03 David MENTRE <address@hidden>
 5996 CC46 4612 9CA4 3562  D7AC 6C67 9E96 A3AD 7A2A

This package was debianized by Sven Luther <address@hidden> on
Fri, 14 Dec 2001 12:44:03 +0100.

It was downloaded from

  ftp://ftp.inria.fr:/INRIA/cristal/caml-light/ocaml-3.08

Upstream Authors: Xavier Leroy, Jerome Vouillon and Damien Doligez
Upstream Author for the camlp4 part: Daniel de Rauglaudre

Copyright:

In the following, "the Library" refers to all files marked "Copyright
INRIA" in the following directories and their sub-directories:

  asmrun, byterun, camlp4, config, otherlibs, stdlib, win32caml

and "the Compiler" refers to all files marked "Copyright INRIA" in the
following directories and their sub-directories:

  asmcomp, boot, bytecomp, debugger, driver, lex, ocamldoc, parsing,
  tools, toplevel, typing, utils, yacc

and the "emacs bindings" refer to all files marked "Copyright INRIA" in
the followin directory :

  emacs

The Compiler is distributed under the terms of the Q Public License
version 1.0 with a change to choice of law (included below).

The Library is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General
Public License version 2 (found in /usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2
on debian systems).

The emacs bindings are distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License version 2 (found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2
on debian systems).

As a special exception to the Q Public Licence, you may develop
application programs, reusable components and other software items
that link with the original or modified versions of the Compiler
and are not made available to the general public, without any of the
additional requirements listed in clause 6c of the Q Public licence.

As a special exception to the GNU Library General Public License, you
may link, statically or dynamically, a "work that uses the Library"
with a publicly distributed version of the Library to produce an
executable file containing portions of the Library, and distribute
that executable file under terms of your choice, without any of the
additional requirements listed in clause 6 of the GNU Library General
Public License.  By "a publicly distributed version of the Library",
we mean either the unmodified Library as distributed by INRIA, or a
modified version of the Library that is distributed under the
conditions defined in clause 3 of the GNU Library General Public
License.  This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons
why the executable file might be covered by the GNU Library General
Public License.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   THE Q PUBLIC LICENSE version 1.0

              Copyright (C) 1999 Troll Tech AS, Norway.
                  Everyone is permitted to copy and
                  distribute this license document.

The intent of this license is to establish freedom to share and change
the software regulated by this license under the open source model.

This license applies to any software containing a notice placed by the
copyright holder saying that it may be distributed under the terms of
the Q Public License version 1.0. Such software is herein referred to
as the Software. This license covers modification and distribution of
the Software, use of third-party application programs based on the
Software, and development of free software which uses the Software.

                            Granted Rights

1. You are granted the non-exclusive rights set forth in this license
provided you agree to and comply with any and all conditions in this
license. Whole or partial distribution of the Software, or software
items that link with the Software, in any form signifies acceptance of
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2. You may copy and distribute the Software in unmodified form
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6. You may develop application programs, reusable components and other
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      a. You must ensure that all recipients of machine-executable
      forms of these items are also able to receive and use the
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--- /tmp/LICENSE        2004-10-13 19:10:40.000000000 +0200
+++ copyright   2004-08-25 01:29:43.000000000 +0200
@@ -1,6 +1,61 @@
-The CDuce interpreter is distributed under the terms of the Q Public License
-version 1.0 (included below). The "Choice of Law" section been modified
-from the original Q Public License (Copyright (C) 1999 Troll Tech AS, Norway).
+This package was debianized by Sven Luther <address@hidden> on
+Fri, 14 Dec 2001 12:44:03 +0100.
+
+It was downloaded from
+
+  ftp://ftp.inria.fr:/INRIA/cristal/caml-light/ocaml-3.08
+
+Upstream Authors: Xavier Leroy, Jerome Vouillon and Damien Doligez
+Upstream Author for the camlp4 part: Daniel de Rauglaudre
+
+Copyright:
+
+In the following, "the Library" refers to all files marked "Copyright
+INRIA" in the following directories and their sub-directories:
+
+  asmrun, byterun, camlp4, config, otherlibs, stdlib, win32caml
+
+and "the Compiler" refers to all files marked "Copyright INRIA" in the
+following directories and their sub-directories:
+
+  asmcomp, boot, bytecomp, debugger, driver, lex, ocamldoc, parsing,
+  tools, toplevel, typing, utils, yacc
+
+and the "emacs bindings" refer to all files marked "Copyright INRIA" in
+the followin directory :
+
+  emacs
+
+The Compiler is distributed under the terms of the Q Public License
+version 1.0 with a change to choice of law (included below).
+
+The Library is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General
+Public License version 2 (found in /usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2
+on debian systems).
+
+The emacs bindings are distributed under the terms of the GNU General
+Public License version 2 (found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2
+on debian systems).
+
+As a special exception to the Q Public Licence, you may develop
+application programs, reusable components and other software items
+that link with the original or modified versions of the Compiler
+and are not made available to the general public, without any of the
+additional requirements listed in clause 6c of the Q Public licence.
+
+As a special exception to the GNU Library General Public License, you
+may link, statically or dynamically, a "work that uses the Library"
+with a publicly distributed version of the Library to produce an
+executable file containing portions of the Library, and distribute
+that executable file under terms of your choice, without any of the
+additional requirements listed in clause 6 of the GNU Library General
+Public License.  By "a publicly distributed version of the Library",
+we mean either the unmodified Library as distributed by INRIA, or a
+modified version of the Library that is distributed under the
+conditions defined in clause 3 of the GNU Library General Public
+License.  This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons
+why the executable file might be covered by the GNU Library General
+Public License.
 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
@@ -105,5 +160,4 @@
 
                             Choice of Law
 
-This license is governed by the Laws of France. Disputes shall be
-settled by the Court of Paris.
+This license is governed by the Laws of France.