> > > I think I understand what the license is trying to say (that non-GPL > > > licenses are available from the author, if you don't want to be bound > > > by the terms of the GPL?), but the way it's currently worded is > > > incredibly sloppy and fails the DFSG. > > > > That blurb simply states a fact (that the copyright holder has the right > > to relicense), and I'm not sure how stating a fact is contrary to the > > DFSG. > > No, that blurb is ambiguous. It can be taken as an offer for an > additional license, or it can be taken as a statement which conflicts > with the GPL. > > I would hope that it shouldn't be taken as a statement which conflicts > with the GPL, but I think it's obvious that the phrasing should be > cleaned up.
The whole point of the EXCERPT of the paragraph from the licenses is a clarification to an ambiguous phrasing of one of the points in the GPL. Without further ado, the actual full thing: +[LICENSE] ReiserFS is hereby licensed under the GNU General +Public License version 2. Please see the file "COPYING" +which should have accompanied this software distribution for +details of that license. + +Since that license (particularly 2.b) is necessarily vague in certain +areas due to its generality, the following interpretations shall govern. +Some may consider these terms to be a supplemental license to the GPL. +You may include ReiserFS in a Linux kernel which you may then include +with anything, and you may even include it with a Linux kernel with +non-GPL'd kernel modules. You may include it in any kernel which is +wholly GPL'd including its kernel modules which you may then include +with anything. If you wish to use it for a kernel which you sell usage +or copying licenses for, which is not listed above, then you must obtain +an additional license. If you wish to integrate it with any other +software system which is not GPL'd, without integrating it into an +operating system kernel, then you must obtain an additional license. +This is an interpretation of what is and is not part of the software +program falling under the GPL section 2.b., and is intended as a +specification of (with a slight supplement to), not an exception to, the +GPL as applied to this particular piece of software. + +Further licensing options are available for commercial and/or other +interests directly from Hans Reiser: [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you +interpret the GPL as not allowing those additional licensing options, +you read it wrongly, when carefully read you can see that those +restrictions on additional terms do not apply to the owner of the +copyright, and my interpretation of this shall govern for this license. + +[END LICENSE] Andrew
