[Fwd: [clam-devel] [lincvs-users] Commercial version of LinCVS (fwd)]

[Ben Finney]

On 23-Feb-2005, Xavier Amatriain wrote:
> This might be "legal" as the main author may have rights over the
> whole program

Only if they also honour the license under which they received the work;
i.e. the contributions of all those whose code appears in LinCVS.

> but it is surely not very ethical: LinCVS has had contributions from
> many others than the main developer. What do you think?

The LinCVS license has been problematic for a long time.  It is a
classic "GPL plus more restrictions" license.  If anyone has contributed
source under the GPL, the result is likely not redistributable at all.
You can't simultaneously distribute under GPL (the only way to
redistribute GPLed work), and apply more restrictions, without violating
the license.

The maintainer of the Debian LinCVS package believes the program is
legally redistributable, but non-free.

    <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=270461>

-- 
 \          "One time I went to a drive-in in a cab. The movie cost me |
  `\                           ninety-five dollars."  -- Steven Wright |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/attachments/20050224/3330566f/attachment.sig>