On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 04:41:50PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 01:31:16PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote: > > I think it boils down to this. When I run a KDE app, I think it's > > reasonable to ensure that the About box maintains a reference to the > > original author for modified versions. Or the splash screen for "bc". Or > > an interactie OfflineIMAP. > > I don't think all of these are the same thing. > > I don't like splash screens, but I will tolerate them as long as I'm not > forbidden from removing them.
You can always remove things for yourself. > About boxes are fine, but I am not sure it is wise to permit a Free > Software license to forbid people from removing them. It makes perfect > sense to remove an About box if, for instance, one is converting an > application into a library. I agree. (2)(c) should only apply when an application is run interactively. If you make an application into a library, it'd never be run interactively, so its relevance should disappear. I know I haven't worded this quite right, but you get the idea. > Brief blurbs about copyright, licensing, and lack of warranty are fine > as long as they don't intrude on an output stream that I might be able > to feed into another tool for processing. Material intended for human > consumption should not be rammed down the throats of simple tools. Yup, and I'd say it's not being run interactively in this case, so 2c shouldn't apply. > I personally favor strict interpretation of licenses, with some > cognizance of historical precedent, and a liberal interpretation of the > DFSG, such that it can be read broadly to exclude licenses. I think > this is a far better approach for preserving users' freedom than the > converse -- and preserving users' freedom is in fact the explicit > purpose of the DFSG. I agree with you, but I'm not sure you are encouraging a strict interpretation of the GPL in some of your other messages :-) Of course, we need to beware that the historical precedent that counts, when it comes to determining what exactly a license permits, is case law and not online discussions. For deciding whether a license is DFSG-free, that's another matter entirely. -- John
