"source code" button

Marc Rauw rauw at xs4all.removethisplease.nl
Mon Mar 25 22:54:53 UTC 2002


Personally, I think a tightly defined 'download button' is a rather awkward
method to enforce copyleft for webservices. I would prefer more generic
terms, such as the following license clause (which uses the term 'public
display' rather than 'webservice' in an attempt to generalize the clause as
much as possible):

"Public display of the Software is allowed, provided that You ensure that
all users are also able to receive the complete Source Code of the Software
by means of a medium custorarily used for software interchange, without any
charge beyond the costs of data transfer, and present a prominent notice to
the users explaining this."

I'm not sure whether the term 'public display' is indeed suitable for this
purpose, but the clause could easily be altered to cover 'software that is
intended to interact with users through a computer network' (conveniently
taken from the Affero GPL) if necessary. The proposed clause doesn't place
any restrictions to the form and technology other than requiring a
'prominent notice'. Even though 'prominent' hasn't been defined explicitely,
the spirit of this license term is quite clear IMHO, and purposely hiding
the download information in some obscure corner of the webservice clearly
doesn't follow this spirit.

Of course, IANAL etc.

Regards,
Marc Rauw.

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