Hello!
Remi Collet noted in a package review[0] I submitted that there is some unclear wording about the licensing of the package. The readme[1] says:
It was previously stated that this package is on MIT license, which did not meet the requirements set by the original author. It is now under the GNU GPL v3 license, so if you wish to use it in a commercial project, you need to pay an appropriate fee.
The pchart.net license page[2] says even more, but also has a slight contradiction I think:
The pChart library is released under two different licenses. If your application is not a commercial one (eg: you make no money by redistributing it) then the GNU GPLv3 license (General Public License) applies. This license allows you to freely integrate this library in your applications, modify the code and redistribute it in bundled packages as long as your application is also distributed with the GPL license.
If your application can't meet the GPL license or is a commercial one (eg: the library is integrated in a software or an appliance you're selling) then you'll have to buy a commercial license. With this license you don't need to make publicly available your application code under the GPL license terms.
The slight contradiction I referenced is the "if you can't meet the GPL" bit. The first paragraph specifically cites making money by redistributing, but the second paragraph sounds like they think it's OK if you follow the GPL terms. It's confusing. I think Remi is right to say that we need to get clarification before we can add this package to Fedora.
One thing that makes this a bit more complicated is that the szymach version of pchart sounds like it might be a fork of pchart, but doesn't make that clear either.
Is this a blocker for package review? Would we need both upstreams to grant a clearer license before we can proceed?
[0] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1425275 [1] https://github.com/szymach/c-pchart#license [2] http://www.pchart.net/license
On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Randy Barlow bowlofeggs@fedoraproject.org wrote:
The slight contradiction I referenced is the "if you can't meet the GPL" bit. The first paragraph specifically cites making money by redistributing, but the second paragraph sounds like they think it's OK if you follow the GPL terms. It's confusing. I think Remi is right to say that we need to get clarification before we can add this package to Fedora.
It is a bit confusing, and I'm wondering if this is what would be considered a "field of use" limitation - something similar to the (bad) JSON license, which contains an unparseable "the Software must be used for good, not evil" condition [1].
The GPL obviously allows you to redistribute and make money from that redistribution, but it does impose terms upon your derived works that you may be unable to comply with if your application that uses the library is proprietary - in that case, it seems the author is saying "let's talk, we can come to some arrangement on a license acceptable to you", MongoDB does similar things (licensed as AGPL, with commercial licensing available in the highly likely event for an enterprise that you don't want to distribute the code to your web application that uses it).
Either way, it seems VERY poorly worded.
On Mon, Mar 06, 2017 at 11:28:23AM -0500, Randy Barlow wrote:
Hello!
Remi Collet noted in a package review[0] I submitted that there is some unclear wording about the licensing of the package. The readme[1] says:
It was previously stated that this package is on MIT license, which did not meet the requirements set by the original author. It is now under the GNU GPL v3 license, so if you wish to use it in a commercial project, you need to pay an appropriate fee.
The pchart.net license page[2] says even more, but also has a slight contradiction I think:
The pChart library is released under two different licenses. If your application is not a commercial one (eg: you make no money by redistributing it) then the GNU GPLv3 license (General Public License) applies. This license allows you to freely integrate this library in your applications, modify the code and redistribute it in bundled packages as long as your application is also distributed with the GPL license.
If your application can't meet the GPL license or is a commercial one (eg: the library is integrated in a software or an appliance you're selling) then you'll have to buy a commercial license. With this license you don't need to make publicly available your application code under the GPL license terms.
The slight contradiction I referenced is the "if you can't meet the GPL" bit. The first paragraph specifically cites making money by redistributing, but the second paragraph sounds like they think it's OK if you follow the GPL terms. It's confusing. I think Remi is right to say that we need to get clarification before we can add this package to Fedora.
I think this package cannot be added to Fedora because of the statements made by the pChart author suggesting that commercial use is not permitted.
Richard
Thanks for all the replies!
So far, I have attempted to contact the pchart upstream to ask for clarification, contacted c-pchart[0] to ask if they know how to get in touch with upstream pchart (they don't), and contacted Ampache[1] to alert them to the issue and propose a few workarounds that I can think of.
Richard, I hope you don't mind me referring to you as a "notable authority" on the GPL ☺
[0] https://github.com/szymach/c-pchart/issues/35 [1] https://github.com/ampache/ampache/issues/1515
Thanks for all the replies!
So far, I have attempted to contact the pchart upstream to ask for clarification, contacted c-pchart[0] to ask if they know how to get in touch with upstream pchart (they don't), and contacted Ampache[1] to alert them to the issue and propose a few workarounds that I can think of.
Richard, I hope you don't mind me referring to you as a "notable authority" on the GPL ☺
[0] https://github.com/szymach/c-pchart/issues/35 [1] https://github.com/ampache/ampache/issues/1515
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Jon Stanley -
Randy Barlow -
Randy Barlow -
Richard Fontana