legal September 2009

legal@lists.fedoraproject.org

14 participants
14 discussions

Licensing issue in OpenLayers package (already in Fedora)
by Mathieu Bridon 13 Sep '09

13 Sep '09

Hi, The OpenLayers package (already in Fedora, owned by Cristian in CC and of which I'm a co-maintainer) bundles a JavaScript minimizer called jsmin [1]. I know this is bad practice to have a tool bundled like this, and I wanted to remove it from the source RPM and make it use a system version of jsmin that would be installed in its own package. However, I saw that jsmin had already been submitted to Fedora and was refused because the license specifies that « The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil. » [2] I discussed it with the OpenLayers devs (see attached IRC log) and it seems we have 2 possibilities. 1. The jsmin.py script was rewritten from scratch to mimic the behavior of the C original version. It currently contains the following license header: ==== # This code is original from jsmin by Douglas Crockford, it was translated to # Python by Baruch Even. The original code had the following copyright and # license. # # /* jsmin.c # 2007-01-08 # # Copyright (c) 2002 Douglas Crockford (www.crockford.com) # # Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of # this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in # the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to # use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies # of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do # so, subject to the following conditions: # # The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all # copies or substantial portions of the Software. # # The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil. # # THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR # IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, # FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE # AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER # LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, # OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE # SOFTWARE. # */ ==== The part between JavaScript comments is the original problematic license (starts with « /* » and ends with « */ »). My question is, as this seems to be a « clean room implementation », could it have a different license than the original jsmin ? This would make the python version suitable for Fedora (correct me if I'm wrong) and that would allow me to build OpenLayers using it. 2. The second possibility is to simply build OpenLayers without jsmin. This would however result in a much bigger JavaScript file, leading to worse performances. That's a solution I'd rather avoid, but if this is the only possibility, I'll do it. Best regards, [1] http://www.crockford.com/javascript/jsmin.html [2] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=455507 ---------- Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)

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Wiki page : https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_print_magazine_proposal
by Paul F. Johnson 09 Sep '09

09 Sep '09

Hi, I'm looking at the additional agreements part at the base of the document and specifically the line about LPM having the editorial control. While I don't have a problem with that, there needs to be something in the additional part to protect authors over reprints as there is nothing in proposal over LPM using articles in the Fedora mag for their own financial gain in either paper or electronically published form. It is very unusual for contributors to give carte blanche permission for publication and republication. The way this proposal is worded provides no protection against this from happening. I've not edited the page as I'd like the fedora-legal people's perspective on this. TTFN Paul -- Sie können mich aufreizen und wirklich heiß machen!

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License question
by Orion Poplawski 08 Sep '09

08 Sep '09

Could someone take a look at the following package for me: http://www.cora.nwra.com/~orion/fedora/perl-OpenGL-0.58-1.fc11.src.rpm The COPYRIGHT file contains the following: Copyright (c) 1998,1999 Kenneth Albanowski. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2007 Bob Free. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2009 Chris Marshall. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Some portions of this module, including some code sections in OpenGL.pm and OpenGL.xs (marked by "Melax" comments) are Copyright Stan Melax, as are the files in the example/ directory. This is Stan's original COPYRIGHT message for those works: (c) Copyright 1995, Stan Melax, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Stan Melax Alberta Research Council stan(a)arc.ab.ca http://www.arc.ab.ca/~stan Please feel free to give me acknowledgement/credit/money/honorable-mention/job-offers/research-funding wherever or whenever appropriate :-) Permission to copy, modify is granted provided that you include the above copyright notice with it. This software is provided as is, and comes with no promises or guarantees. You may only use it if you promise not to sue me or my employer for anything relating to the use of this software :-) OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. Special thanks to: Tim Bunce Brian Paul Karl Glazebrook http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~kgb The Alberta Research Council Feel free to email me your name so I can add it to the above list. Acknowledgement and credit for those where acknowledgement and credit is warrented ... yadda , yadda .... bla ... bla ... Some of these examples in the "examples" subdirectory are adapted from the OpenGL Programming Guide. Here's the copyright that was attached to the examples from "OpenGL Programming Guide" by Neider, Davis, and Woo, and published by Addison Wesley: /* * (c) Copyright 1993, Silicon Graphics, Inc. * ALL RIGHTS RESERVED * Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for * any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above * copyright notice appear in all copies and that both the copyright notice * and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that * the name of Silicon Graphics, Inc. not be used in advertising * or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, * written prior permission. * * THE MATERIAL EMBODIED ON THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS" * AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, * INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SILICON * GRAPHICS, INC. BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY DIRECT, * SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY * KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, * LOSS OF PROFIT, LOSS OF USE, SAVINGS OR REVENUE, OR THE CLAIMS OF * THIRD PARTIES, WHETHER OR NOT SILICON GRAPHICS, INC. HAS BEEN * ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE * POSSESSION, USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. * * US Government Users Restricted Rights * Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to * restrictions set forth in FAR 52.227.19(c)(2) or subparagraph * (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software * clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 and/or in similar or successor * clauses in the FAR or the DOD or NASA FAR Supplement. * Unpublished-- rights reserved under the copyright laws of the * United States. Contractor/manufacturer is Silicon Graphics, * Inc., 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94039-7311. * * OpenGL(TM) is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. */ glx_procs.h contains the FreeB license copyright. Thanks! -- Orion Poplawski Technical Manager 303-415-9701 x222 NWRA/CoRA Division FAX: 303-415-9702 3380 Mitchell Lane orion(a)cora.nwra.com Boulder, CO 80301 http://www.cora.nwra.com

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Fedora print magazine licensing: what should we be aware of?
by Mel Chua 04 Sep '09

04 Sep '09

Adam Miller and I were talking about the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_print_magazine proposal and a question for fedora-legal came up. Basically, as we move through the process of exploring (and then hopefully producing) a print Fedora magazine (right now the proposal is from Linux Pro Magazine, for us to work with them), are there any legal things we should be aware of? <mchua> One of the things I want to ask about today is the licensing and online availability of the magazine materials. <mchua> I'm not sure if we'll be republishing any materials we've already got / will be having, but it seems pretty logical that we would (for instance, publish the screeenshots tour, or feature profiles). <maxamillion> ah, that might be a question for fedora-legal mailing list <mchua> maxamillion: ooh, thanks for the suggestion. *asks fedora-legal* Thanks! --Mel

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legal September 2009