use Perl

• "Severity: serious" (Score:2)

  by jdavidb (1361)

  I'm a free software fanatic (well, sometimes), and I appreciate Debian sticking to their guns ... but last I checked the Perl Artistic License was a free software license, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

  --
  J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
  • Re:"Severity: serious" (Score:1)

    by blech (1597) on 2003.08.13 8:42 (#23066) Homepage Journal

    Quoting from Don Armstrong's post (Message-ID: ), the problem is as follows:
    
    

    "DFSG 10 says that the Artistic license can be assumed to meet the DFSG."
    
    It does, but we're not dealing with the Artistic license here... this is an Artistic License with an additional rider with strange interactions.

    
    
    The "rider" (right at the top of the discussion) is:
    
    

    "Distribution Conditions"
    
    Copyright 1998 The Perl Journal.
    
    When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic License. Any distribution of this file or derivatives thereof outside of that package require that special arrangements be made with copyright holder.

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    • Re:"Severity: serious" (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jdavidb (1361)

      I've personally about had it up to here with contradictory distribution guidelines. I'm fed up with people who want to say, "This software is GPL unless you put it on a CD." I support every author's right to set distribution terms for their own software, but from one programmer to another, I want to say, "If you don't get the point, stay out until you do."

      More and more licenses keep popping up, and more and more special exceptions. All this does is make things confusing. I think the best advice I ever

      --
      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
    • Distributing as non-free violates terms (Score:2)

      by jdavidb (1361)

      Oh, and it seems to me that splitting out the file into a non-free package and distributing it breaks the author's terms. At that point, it's not part of the Perl distribution!

      --
      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
      • Re:Distributing as non-free violates terms (Score:1)

        by sky (1411)

        Put then Debian is already breaking the author of perls term in the AL, and distributes a non standard perl.

        --
        sky
        • Re:Distributing as non-free violates terms (Score:2)

          by jdavidb (1361)

          Yeah, but Debian is distributing under GPL. Or something. Say, this dual-licensing thing sure is confusing! :)

          --
          J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers