Re: [gNewSense-users] Main xm-xr has been checked

[Kevin Dean]

The SGI Free Software License B is not included in xserver-xorg-core.

The package xserver-xorg itself is Free Software, being MIT.
xserver-xorg-core APPEARS to be Free Software as far as I can see. My
only concern is that the FSF does not have ANY input on the GLX Public
License.

My understanding of it is that it IS a Free Software license. However,
the license is DAMN wordy and there could be something sneaky in
there, perhaps an inquiry to address@hidden might be prudent.

-Kevin

On 10/26/07, Stewart Starbuck <address@hidden> wrote:
> The SGI license is non free:
>
> 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.
>
> I flagged this issue with libx11, but as pointed out by bbrazil:
> If you grep through the source, you'll see that the only files mentioning 
> this license are the COPYING and copyright. So it looks like this is a 
> holdover from a previous version that noone has cleaned up, so this license 
> doesn't affect the freedom of the package
>
> I'd do the same with xorg-xserver, to see if this is the same case.
>
> I'd do it myself, but I'm on a readers week, and have way too much work to do 
> at the moment =(
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Chris Andrew <address@hidden>
> To: Brian Kemp <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Sent: Friday, 26 October, 2007 5:11:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [gNewSense-users] Main xm-xr has been checked
>
> Brian,
>
> Thanks for having the sense to ask for this to be checked.  It is
> better to be in doubt and raise a bug, than to say the package is
> free, when you are not sure.
>
> The xorg-xserver package is pretty important to the GNU/Linux
> community, so it is essential we get our stance sorted on this one.  I
> know some distros are still using XFree86, but that would go in the
> opposite direction to Ubuntu.
>
> Please could the list consider helping Brian on this one.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Cheers,
>
> chris.
>
> On 26/10/2007, Brian Kemp <address@hidden> wrote:
> > I finished this one up last night, but didn't update main.
> >
> > Can I ask a quick favor?
> >
> > Can someone else independently verify that xorg-xserver (or
> > xserver-xorg, I forget, it's Friday) is free?  The copyright file is
> > 44k!
> >
> > I believe it is free (The Bitstream Vera fonts have one small
> > restriction about commercial use, but it is easily worked around; RMS
> > says that is fine.)
> >
> > I bring into question the license from DEC, the license from SGI, and
> > the license directly below it that looks to be the same.
> >
> > DEC seems to be in the same vein as New BSD, MIT, ISC, what have
> > you--permissive non-copyleft and seems to be okay, but I'd like
> > another reading for thoroughness.
> >
> > The SGI licenses does as well but it has a lot more terms and sections.
> >
> > I do not really see a huge chance that this package is
> > non-free--however it's an important one and I'd rather have someone
> > else verify my work here.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > --Brian
> >
> > (No PGP sig, not at home computer, and no smart card yet.)
> >
> > P.S.> If anyone would like me to double-check any of their package
> > work, just say so.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gNewSense-users mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
> >
>
>
> --
> Reasons why you may want to try GNU/Linux:
>
> http://www.getgnulinux.org/
>
> A great GNU/Linux distro:
>
> http://wiki.gnewsense.org/
>
>
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