WinGrid Free Public License

David Johnson arandir at meer.net
Thu Dec 16 03:21:21 UTC 1999


On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, j.Maxwell Legg wrote:
>
> a     Distribution of the program or any work based on the program by a
> commercial organization to any third party is prohibited if any payment is made
> in connection with such distribution. This applies whether directly (as in
> payment for a copy of the program) or indirectly (as in payment for some
> service related to the program, or payment for some product or service that
> includes a copy of the program "without charge".  

By specifying "commercial organization", you are going against section 6 of the
OSD which states "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor". However, I
believe you could apply this clause to anyone, commercial or otherwise, and be
okay, except ...

However, this brings up point two. The first section of the OSD says that a
license may not "restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as
a component..." Your clause as written would restrict people from including
your software on a CD collection which they then sold for $1.99 + S/H.

Moving on down we see:

> For United States government users, the program is provided with restricted
> rights...

This is a big OSD no-no! Government workers are still in a "field of
endeavor." Furthermore, you are singling out a single nation for the following
restrictions.

And finally, a lot of the language is taken directly from the GPL. Be warned
that the GPL is copyrighted and allows only verbatim distribution. The GPL is
*not* under the GPL :-) I would suggest rewriting those parts.

-- 
David Johnson
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http://www.meer.net/~arandir/



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