License review for new itext version

[Hans de Goede]

Jochen Schmitt wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> in the past we have removed itext and pdftk which depends on itext from
> the Fedora distribution due
> license issue.
> 
> In the new iText package itext-2.0.4 I have found a text file about the
> licensing situation of the
> source file coming from Sun Corporation Inc.
> 
> I have uploaded this file for review on
> 
> http://www.herr-schmitt.de/pub/itext/sun.txt
> 
> I want to know, it this ok for Fedora. But I assume, that the last term
> about usage this
> file for nuclear weapons may be a blocker.
> 
> Best Regards:
> 
> Jochen Schmitt
> 

The second license is fine, its plain 2 clause BSD, the nuclear facility text 
means: If you use this in a nuclear facility (say a power plant) and the 
facility goes BOOM because of a bug in this software, don't sue us, we told you 
there were no guarantees. Its just added boilerplate to the guarantee disclaimer.

The first might be a problem though, esp the second clause:
ii) Licensee does not utilize the software in a manner which is
disparaging to Sun Microsystems.

Looking up "to disparage" in my dictionary ... it means you cannot use this 
software in a manner which criticises Sun Microsystems, sounds like a use 
restriction to me and thus non free, you will need to ask Sun to waive this 
requirement.

But IANAL the definitive person to ask things like this is Spot (who AFAIK is 
not a lawyer either, but still he is the one).

Regards,

Hans