Hi! [Please CC: replies to me as I'm not subscribed to debian-legal]
I'm new to debian and also don't have much experience regarding licenses. The file manager vfu (GPL) which I intend to package uses a library by the same author. The library is staticaly linked to the program. Now the library has got this "license-like Agreement"(author): LICENSE AGREEMENT: THIS LIBRARY IS USED BY AN APPLICATION ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY THE AUTHOR. YOU CAN USE VSLIB UNDER THE LICENSE OF THIS APPLICATION ONLY. YOU CANNOT USE THIS LIBRARY AS STANDALONE PRODUCT AND YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO RECEIVE IT IN THIS FORM. HOWEVER, IF YOU GOT VSLIB IN OTHER CASE THAN MENTIONED ABOVE OR THE APPLICATION LICENSE IS NOT CLEAR OR DOESN'T EXIST IN THE ORIGINAL PACKAGE YOU HAVE TO AGREE TO THIS: YOU CAN DISTRIBUTE ORIGINAL LIBRARY ONLY IN THE FORM YOU RECEIVE IT (IN THIS CASE YOU MAY NOT MODIFY ANY TEXT AND CODE INCLUDED). YOU MAY USE THE ORIGINAL LIBRARY FOR YOUR APPLICATIONS AS LONG AS YOUR APPLICATION OR ITS DOCUMENTS DISPLAY/CONTAIN ORIGINAL COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND APPROPRIATE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS. YOU MAY CHANGE VSLIB FOR DEBUG PURPOSES OR FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY (I.E. YOU CANNOT DISTRIBUTE SOFTWARE THAT USES MODIFIED VSLIB)! WELL, IF YOU NEED TO MODIFY AND USE VSLIB OR WANT TO USE VSLIB IN A WAY THAT IS NOT MENTIONED HERE, YOU MUST REQUEST PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR! THANK YOU! I think we can skip the second part as I received it with an application by the author. What nags me ist that the second and third sentence kinda contradict each other. So is this license free or not? Also if you have any other comments on this license tell me and I'll forward it to the author. I'm sure he'd be glad. TIA Mika
