Isaac To wrote: > If you look at the license of non-free software in the Debian archive and > read the copyright file of each of them, you can find that they allow the > binary code to be distributed in a Debian CD-ROM to be sold. They become > non-free because of things like source code not provided, commercial *use* > (rather than distribution) restrictions, disallowing changes to the code, > etc.
Well no, you'll find all of the restrictions you mention, but also restrictions on commerical sale. For example, the sole non-free package I maintain, dgen; an excerpt: * MZ80 May not be sold, or sold as a part of a commercial package without * the express written permission of Neil Bradley ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). This * includes shareware. Another excerpt: No money, goods, or services may be charged or solicited for Starscream, or any emulator or other program which includes Starscream, in whole or in part. Using Starscream in a shareware or commercial application is forbidden. Contact Neill Corlett ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) if you'd like to license Starscream for commercial use. Restrictions on commercial sale violate point 1 of the DFSG, and such a violation alone is enough to put software into non-free. So be very careful before selling CD's of debian's non-free archive. -- see shy jo
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