On 29 Jan 1999, John Hasler wrote: > David Starner quotes: > > LPRng is distributed under the GNU software license for > > non-commercial use, the Artistic License for limited com=AD > > mercial use. Commerical support and licensing is avail=AD > > able through Patrick Powell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. > > And writes: > > What's so strange? How I understand it is that you can use it under the > > GPL or Artistic License. If you need support or want to include it in a > > program without following the Artistic or GPL, then email him and he'll > > hook you up - probably for a hefty fee. Still, completely DFSG-free. > > He is letting us chose one of three licenses: The GPL modified to forbid > commercial use, the Artistic modified to forbid all but "limited" > commmercial use, and a privately negotiated custom license. Very non-free. > > I suspect that he labors under the delusion that the GPL intrinsicly > forbids commercial use. He is quite wrong. It does not apply to use at > all.
My reading of his license is this: LPRng is distributed under *either* the terms of the GPL (which, you will find forces you to only use it non-commercially) *or* the terms of the Artistic license (which, you will find, gives you some limited ability to use it commercially), *or* by special arrangement with the author. Now, I agree that he is 'wrong' about the parenthetical phrases (although, it does depend what he means by commercial - the GPL distributing modified versions commercially binary-only, which could be what he means) - however, I didn't read his license as trying to 'modify' the licenses as John says. Although I can certainly see why John read it that way. I suggest emailing him for clarification, anyhow... Jules /----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\ | Jelibean aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 6 Evelyn Rd | | Jules aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Richmond, Surrey | | Julian Bean | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TW9 2TF *UK* | +----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+ | War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left. | | When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy. | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
