D1x license

[Michael Wiktowy]

Hans de Goede wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Before moving forward with d1x I decided to review all the 
> legal/license details. The shareware datafiles (as distributed by 
> SUSE) come with the following text:
> ---
> The Shareware Descent Data Files are freely distributable to anyone and
> everyone so long as they are distributed in UNMODIFIED FORM and no 
> fees are charged.  All the files must be distributed together.
> ---
>
> The "no fees are charged" part worries me, would this create trouble 
> for people who would wish to create and sell Fedora Extras CD's?
>
> Or are the costs in this case for the CD and the labour burning the CD 
> and not for the software on it since this is freely available from the 
> net?
>
> Since the shareware files have been distributed on CD by SUSE for a 
> long time I think this is not a problem but what do you think?


I would think that that would be for someone who wants to sell Fedora 
Extras CDs to worry about.
AFAIK, there is no charge for people accessing the Fedora Extras 
repository so it could happily reside there. If someone wants to extend 
the scope of Extras later into a commercial product, then they will have 
to make some adjustments and know what they are doing.
Not putting this in just because someone may choose to come along and 
try to commercialize Extras without putting any thought or work into 
doing so seems silly to me.
It would be the equivalent of not wanting to release any software 
written under the GPL because someone sometime in the future might want 
to take that software, make changes and only release the binaries. You 
are not in the wrong for releasing it in the first place. They are wrong 
for not following the conditions later.

/Mike