>>>>> On Tue, 8 Nov 2016, Ian Jackson wrote: > RAR is not part of Debian. It is in non-free. This means we do not > like its licence.
Sure, there cannot be any doubt that this is non-free software. The question is if the license that comes with it grants free distribution. > http://www.win-rar.com/winrarlicense.html?&L=0 > That licence is IMO clearly unsuitable even for Debian non-free. > | 3a. The software's trial version may be freely distributed, with > | exceptions noted below, provided the distribution package is not > | modified in any way > But we have of course modified it. > | 3c. The unmodified installation file of WinRAR must be provided pure > | and unpaired. Any bundling is interdicted. In particular the use of > | any install or download software which is providing any kind of > | download bundles is prohibited unless granted by win.rar GmbH in > | written form > It is not clear to me whether our distribution approaches contravene > this. > | 3d. Hacks/cracks, keys or key generators may not be included, > | pointed to or referred to by the distributor of the trial version > We (Debian) cannot possibly agree to such a condition. It may well be > violated in Debian (even in main) already. I believe that clause 3b is problematic, too: | 3b. The software's unlicensed trial version may not be distributed | inside of any other software package without written permission. | The software must remain in the original unmodified installation | file Presumably, this condition wouldn't be fulfilled for a .deb file? | for download without any barrier and conditions to the user | such as collecting fees for the download or making the download | conditional on the user giving his contact data. No fees must be collected for the download. It is not clear if this would also apply when distributing the software on a physical medium. >> So what is your stance on the above license? Can the software still >> be freely distributed? > I think for Debian non-free we will probably want to stick with > 5.3.b2. The license.txt file in rar_5.3.b2.orig.tar.gz already is the new version of the license, though. Ulrich
