Are there any legal problems with using the Habeas Warrant Mark in open
source spam filters (specifically, SpamAssassin). I want to be certain
that it does not:
a) cause SpamAssassin fail to meet the DFSG (or OSD)
b) cause SpamAssassin other legal problems
If your objection is that Habeas sucks, won't work, or something of that
sort, then maybe you could respond off-list. ;-)
(Side note: we don't actually use the warrant mark in our code, we look
for a SHA1 match of a somewhat munged version of the headers for mostly
technical reasons. Let's pretend that we need the license just for the
sake of this discussion.)
Thanks.
Here's the proposed license from Habeas, this is a draft license:
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Habeas Email Filter License
The Habeas Warrant Mark ("the mark") comprises the following 9 lines of
text:
X-Habeas-SWE-1: winter into spring
X-Habeas-SWE-2: brightly anticipated
X-Habeas-SWE-3: like Habeas SWE (tm)
X-Habeas-SWE-4: Copyright 2002 Habeas (tm)
X-Habeas-SWE-5: Sender Warranted Email (SWE) (tm). The sender of this
X-Habeas-SWE-6: email in exchange for a license for this Habeas
X-Habeas-SWE-7: warrant mark warrants that this is a Habeas Compliant
X-Habeas-SWE-8: Message (HCM) and not spam. Please report use of this
X-Habeas-SWE-9: mark in spam to <http://www.habeas.com/report/>.
Habeas has filed for copyright and trademark protection for the mark and
permission from Habeas is required to reproduce the mark.
Habeas grants permission to software developers, system administrators,
and email users to make use of the mark, provided that all of the
following conditions are met:
1) Use of the mark is granted solely for the purpose, within the context
of email filtering, of identifying mail that is not spam. The mark may
not be used as a basis for rejecting email that contains the mark.
2) No permission is granted by this license to use the mark on outgoing
mail. For such permission, each user or organization must complete one
of the licenses offered at <http://www.habeas.com/>.
3) Licensee acknowledges and agrees that Habeas is the sole and
exclusive owner of all trademarks, servicemarks, copyrights, and any and
all other intellectual property rights of any kind in the mark.
4) Use of the mark is provided by Habeas "as is" and any express or
implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are
disclaimed. In no event shall Habeas be liable for any direct, indirect,
incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but
not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of
use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on
any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort
(including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of
this Habeas Warrant Mark, even if advised of the possibility of such
damage.
5) Redistributions of source code must retain this entire license.
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--
Daniel Quinlan anti-spam (SpamAssassin), Linux, and open
http://www.pathname.com/~quinlan/ source consulting (looking for new work)
