Dev/Licensing

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Adding Terms to the GPL, Extended Disclaimers, Limitations on Liability, Indemnification, Legal Notices, No Trademark License, Origin, enclosing EULA, Compilation Copyright, License of Source Code vs License of Binary

Misc[edit]

The GPL Exclusion of Warranties May Not Include Infringement Claims[edit]

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.suffolk.edu/dist/5/1153/files/2014/12/McJohn-THE-GPL-MEETS-THE-UCC.pdfarchive.org [1] [2]

Adding Terms to the GPL[edit]

Many projects added additional permissions and/or additional terms to the GPL. The following PDF shows many examples:

http://www.mmmtechlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PLI-Open-Source-2014-Extra-provisions-of-FSF-licenses.pdfarchive.org [3]

Additional Permission to the GPL[edit]

An example how to add Additional permission under GNU GPL version 3 section 7. Quote https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibsarchive.org 

    Copyright (C) [years] [name of copyright holder]

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses>.

    Additional permission under GNU GPL version 3 section 7

    If you modify this Program, or any covered work, by linking or combining it with [name of library] (or a modified version of that library), containing parts covered by the terms of [name of library's license], the licensors of this Program grant you additional permission to convey the resulting work. {Corresponding Source for a non-source form of such a combination shall include the source code for the parts of [name of library] used as well as that of the covered work.}

Source Code[edit]

rbdoom3bfg[edit]

  • package Description: Doom3 BFG edition game engine
  • package rbdoom3bfgarchive.org is in Debian main (i.e. not in Debian contrib or Debian nonfree)
  • license name: GPL-3+-with-id-software-addtional-terms
  • upstream COPYING.txtarchive.org
  • debian/copyrightarchive.org, relevant quote:
License: GPL-3+-with-id-software-addtional-terms
 See COPYING.txt for the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
 .
 ADDITIONAL TERMS:  The Doom 3 BFG Edition GPL Source Code is also subject to
 certain additional terms. You should have received a copy of these additional
 terms immediately following the terms and conditions of the GNU GPL which
 accompanied the Doom 3 BFG Edition GPL Source Code.  If not, please request a
 copy in writing from id Software at id Software LLC, c/o ZeniMax Media Inc.,
 Suite 120, Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA.
 .
 ADDITIONAL TERMS APPLICABLE TO THE Doom 3 BFG Edition GPL Source Code.
 The following additional terms ("Additional Terms") supplement and modify
 the GNU General Public License, Version 3 ("GPL") applicable to the Doom 3
 BFG Edition GPL Source Code ("Doom 3 BFG Edition Source Code"). In addition
 to the terms and conditions of the GPL, the Doom 3 BFG Edition Source Code is
 subject to the further restrictions below.
 .
 1. Replacement of Section 15. Section 15 of the GPL shall be deleted in its
 entirety and replaced with the following:
 "15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
 THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
 INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND MERCHANTABILITY. THE PROGRAM IS BEING
 DELIVERED OR MADE AVAILABLE "AS IS", "WITH ALL FAULTS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OR
 REPRESENTATION. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
 PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST
 OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION."
 .
 2. Replacement of Section 16. Section 16 of the GPL shall be deleted in its
 entirety and replaced with the following:
 "16. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
 UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ITS AFFILIATES, OR ANY
 OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
 LIABLE TO YOU, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, FOR ANY
 DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
 INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
 CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH
 THE PROGRAM(INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
 INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE
 PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), WHETHER OR NOT ANY COPYRIGHT
 HOLDER OR SUCH OTHER PARTY RECEIVES NOTICE OF ANY SUCH DAMAGES AND WHETHER
 OR NOT SUCH DAMAGES COULD HAVE BEEN FORESEEN."
 .
 3. LEGAL NOTICES; NO TRADEMARK LICENSE; ORIGIN. You must reproduce faithfully
 all trademark, copyright and other proprietary and legal notices on any copies
 of the Program or any other required author attributions. This license does
 not grant you rights to use any copyright holder or any other party’s name,
 logo, or trademarks. Neither the name of the copyright holder or its
 affiliates, or any other party who modifies and/or conveys the Program may be
 used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
 specific prior written permission. The origin of the Program must not be
 misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original Program.
 Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
 misrepresented as being the original Program.
 .
 4. INDEMNIFICATION. IF YOU CONVEY A COVERED WORK AND AGREE WITH ANY RECIPIENT
 OF THAT COVERED WORK THAT YOU WILL ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR THAT COVERED WORK,
 YOU HEREBY AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD HARMLESS THE OTHER LICENSORS
 AND AUTHORS OF THAT COVERED WORK FOR ANY DAMAEGS, DEMANDS, CLAIMS, LOSSES,
 CAUSES OF ACTION, LAWSUITS, JUDGMENTS EXPENSES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
 REASONABLE ATTORNEYS' FEES AND EXPENSES) OR ANY OTHER LIABLITY ARISING FROM,
 RELATED TO OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ASSUMPTIONS OF LIABILITY.

dhewm3[edit]

  • package Description: GPL Doom 3 game engine
  • package dhewm3archive.org
  • license name: GPL-3-with-idsoft-extra-terms
  • debian/copyright filearchive.org, relevant excerpt:
Files: *
Copyright: 1999-2011 id Software LLC, a ZeniMax Media company
           2018 Daniel Gibson
Comment: See debian/license-assessment for an assessembent of the additional
 clauses in respect to GPL compatibility.
License: GPL-3-with-idsoft-extra-terms
 Doom 3 Source Code is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 .
 Doom 3 Source Code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
  .
 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
 License version 3 can be found in the file
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.
 .
 In addition, the Doom 3 Source Code is also subject to certain additional
 terms. You should have received a copy of these additional terms immediately
 following the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License which
 accompanied the Doom 3 Source Code.  If not, please request a copy in writing
 from id Software at the address below.
 .
 If you have questions concerning this license or the applicable additional
 terms, you may contact in writing id Software LLC, c/o ZeniMax Media Inc.,
 Suite 120, Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA.
 .
 ADDITIONAL TERMS APPLICABLE TO THE DOOM 3 GPL SOURCE CODE.
 .
 The following additional terms (Additional Terms) supplement and
 modify the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (GPL) applicable to the Doom
 3  GPL Source Code (Doom 3 Source Code).  In addition to the terms and
 conditions of the GPL, the Doom 3 Source Code is subject to the further
 restrictions below.
 .
 1. Replacement of Section 15.  Section 15 of the GPL shall be deleted in its
 entirety and replaced with the following:
 .
 15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
 .
 THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
 INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND MERCHANTABILITY.  THE PROGRAM IS BEING
 DELIVERED OR MADE AVAILABLE 'AS IS', 'WITH ALL FAULTS' AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OR
 REPRESENTATION.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
 PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF
 ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
 .
 2. Replacement of Section 16.  Section 16 of the GPL shall be deleted in its
 entirety and replaced with the following:
 .
 16.	LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
 .
 UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ITS AFFILIATES, OR ANY
 OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
 LIABLE TO YOU, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, FOR ANY
 DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
 INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
 CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH
 THE PROGRAM(INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
 INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE
 PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), WHETHER OR NOT ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER
 OR SUCH OTHER PARTY RECEIVES NOTICE OF ANY SUCH DAMAGES AND WHETHER OR NOT SUCH
 DAMAGES COULD HAVE BEEN FORESEEN.
 .
 3. LEGAL NOTICES; NO TRADEMARK LICENSE; ORIGIN.  You must reproduce faithfully
 all trademark, copyright and other proprietary and legal notices on any copies
 of the Program or any other required author attributions.  This license does not
 grant you rights to use any copyright holder or any other party's name, logo, or
 trademarks.  Neither the name of the copyright holder or its affiliates, or any
 other party who modifies and/or conveys the Program may be used to endorse or
 promote products derived from this software without specific prior written
 permission.  The origin of the Program must not be misrepresented; you must not
 claim that you wrote the original Program.  Altered source versions must be
 plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original
 Program.
 .
 4. INDEMNIFICATION.  IF YOU CONVEY A COVERED WORK AND AGREE WITH ANY RECIPIENT
 OF THAT COVERED WORK THAT YOU WILL ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR THAT COVERED WORK,
 YOU HEREBY AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD HARMLESS THE OTHER LICENSORS AND
 AUTHORS OF THAT COVERED WORK FOR ANY DAMAEGS, DEMANDS, CLAIMS, LOSSES, CAUSES OF
 ACTION, LAWSUITS, JUDGMENTS EXPENSES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION REASONABLE
 ATTORNEYS' FEES AND EXPENSES) OR ANY OTHER LIABLITY ARISING FROM, RELATED TO OR
 IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ASSUMPTIONS OF LIABILITY.

GPL-3-with-idsoft-extra-terms

Summary:
Id software added several terms to the software license, ammending the GPL-3.

This is NOT in a contradiction to the GPL-3 §10, as GPL-3 §7 explictly allows
to override the paragraphs idsoft does.

This was also discussed on debian-legal with the same conclusion:
The extra terms are comptabile with the GPL. (Doom3BFG has the same license)
See https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/10/msg00003.html

Analysis after initial reject:

GPL V3 in §10:
You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the> > rights
granted or affirmed under this License.

However, §7, "Addtional Terms" has an exception to this: (I'll quote
only the important sections here):

  7. Additional Terms.
  (...)
  Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
  add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright
  holders of that material) supplement the terms of this License with
  terms:

    a) Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the
    terms of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or
    b) Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or
    author attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal
    Notices displayed by works containing it; or
    c) Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material,
    or requiring that modified versions of such material be marked in
    reasonable ways as different from the original version; or
    d) Limiting the use for publicity purposes of names of licensors or
    authors of the material; or
    e) Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some
    trade names, trademarks, or service marks; or
    f) Requiring indemnification of licensors and authors of that
    material by anyone who conveys the material (or modified versions
    of it) with contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient,
    for any liability that these contractual assumptions directly
    impose on those licensors and authors.

  All other non-permissive additional terms are considered “further
  restrictions” within the meaning of section 10.

The last quoted sentence makes it clear that other changes except the
ones from the list in §7 are "further restrictions" and implicitly says
"those in the list are not". For now a) is the important one.

idsoft utilizes this exceptions and overrides §15 and §16 with their
own versions, but IMHO above shows that they are free to do that.

There is also nothing in that point a) that disallow to say "I
completely manage §15 and §16 myself, thus the original ones are void",
so saying "Replacement of Section 15.  Section 15 of the GPL shall be
deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:" and
accordingly "2. Replacement of Section 16.  Section 16 of the GPL shall
be deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:"
is OK too.

Looking at idsofts §15, this is a just a rephrased version of the GPL
15, with nothing special in it. [1]

§16 idsoft is also not really fancy rewrite of GPL §16. [2]

There is also a third point in idsofts' additional terms: [3]
3. LEGAL NOTICES; NO TRADEMARK LICENSE; ORIGIN.
but that is also covered but the exceptions in the GPL,
bullet poinst b), c), d) and e)

And finally, point 4 in idsofts addendum, INDEMNIFICATION
is covered by bullet point f). [4]

Bottom line, I'm sure that this license is perfectly fine and distributeable.

--
tobi
  • dhewm3 being in Debian contrib rather than Debian main, however any package in contrib rather than Debian main is not an indicator for anything nonfree.

Quote Debian Policyarchive.org, related key points:

Every package in contrib must comply with the DFSG.

The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution, but which require software outside of the distribution to either build or function.

DFSG means The Debian Free Software Guidelinesarchive.org.

rtcw[edit]

License: GPL-3+-with-idsoft-extra-terms
 There are two very similar license grants for code originating
 from the single-player or multiplayer engine, which are grouped
 together as one license for the purposes of this copyright file.
 The "additional terms" are among those allowed by the GPL version 3,
 section 7; they are the same as in the Doom 3 source code on which
 dhewm3 and rbdoom3bfg are based.
 .
 You can find the GPL license text on a Debian system under
 /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3.
 .
 ==== License grant ===================================================
 .
 [This is the single player version. The multiplayer version is
 identical, except for the replacement of "single player" and "SP"
 with "multiplayer" and "MP".]
 .
 This file is part of the Return to Castle Wolfenstein single player
 GPL Source Code (‘RTCW SP Source Code’).
 .
 RTCW SP Source Code is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 .
 RTCW SP Source Code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with RTCW SP Source Code.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 In addition, the RTCW SP Source Code is also subject to certain
 additional terms. You should have received a copy of these additional
 terms immediately following the terms and conditions of the GNU General
 Public License which accompanied the RTCW SP Source Code.  If not,
 please request a copy in writing from id Software at the address below.
 .
 If you have questions concerning this license or the applicable
 additional terms, you may contact in writing id Software LLC, c/o
 ZeniMax Media Inc., Suite 120, Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA.
 .
 ==== Additional terms ================================================
 .
 [This is the single player version. The multiplayer version is
 identical, except for the replacement of "single player" and "SP"
 with "multiplayer" and "MP".]
 .
 ADDITIONAL TERMS APPLICABLE TO THE RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN
 SINGLE PLAYER GPL SOURCE CODE.
 .
 The following additional terms (“Additional Terms”) supplement and
 modify the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (“GPL”) applicable
 to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein single player GPL Source Code (“RTCW
 SP Source Code”).  In addition to the terms and conditions of the GPL,
 the RTCW SP Source Code is subject to the further restrictions below.
 .
 1. Replacement of Section 15.  Section 15 of the GPL shall be deleted
 in its entirety and replaced with the following:
 .
 “15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
 .
 THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR
 IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS
 FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND MERCHANTABILITY.
 THE PROGRAM IS BEING DELIVERED OR MADE AVAILABLE “AS IS”, “WITH
 ALL FAULTS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION.  THE ENTIRE RISK
 AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.”
 .
 2. Replacement of Section 16.  Section 16 of the GPL shall be deleted
 in its entirety and replaced with the following:
 .
 “16. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
 .
 UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ITS AFFILIATES,
 OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED
 ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
 OTHERWISE, FOR ANY DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL,
 DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES
 ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR INABILITY TO
 USE THE PROGRAM OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH THE PROGRAM(INCLUDING BUT NOT
 LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES
 SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE
 WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), WHETHER OR NOT ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR SUCH
 OTHER PARTY RECEIVES NOTICE OF ANY SUCH DAMAGES AND WHETHER OR NOT SUCH
 DAMAGES COULD HAVE BEEN FORESEEN.”
 .
 3. LEGAL NOTICES; NO TRADEMARK LICENSE; ORIGIN.  You must reproduce
 faithfully all trademark, copyright and other proprietary and legal
 notices on any copies of the Program or any other required author
 attributions.  This license does not grant you rights to use any
 copyright holder or any other party’s name, logo, or trademarks.
 Neither the name of the copyright holder or its affiliates, or any
 other party who modifies and/or conveys the Program may be used to
 endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
 prior written permission.  The origin of the Program must not be
 misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original Program.
 Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not
 be misrepresented as being the original Program.
 .
 4. INDEMNIFICATION.  IF YOU CONVEY A COVERED WORK AND AGREE WITH ANY
 RECIPIENT OF THAT COVERED WORK THAT YOU WILL ASSUME ANY LIABILITY
 FOR THAT COVERED WORK, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND
 HOLD HARMLESS THE OTHER LICENSORS AND AUTHORS OF THAT COVERED WORK
 FOR ANY DAMAEGS, DEMANDS, CLAIMS, LOSSES, CAUSES OF ACTION, LAWSUITS,
 JUDGMENTS EXPENSES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION REASONABLE ATTORNEYS'
 FEES AND EXPENSES) OR ANY OTHER LIABLITY ARISING FROM, RELATED TO OR
 IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ASSUMPTIONS OF LIABILITY.

micropolis[edit]

License: GPL-3+
 This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 .
 This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 .
 ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7
 .
 No trademark or publicity rights are granted.  This license does NOT
 give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any
 other Electronic Arts trademark.  You may not distribute any
 modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any
 affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.
 .
 Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
 copyright notice and these terms.
 .
 If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume
 contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree
 to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual
 assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.
 .
 You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified
 versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as
 the original program.
 .
 This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public
 License.  TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS
 PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY
 OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.  THE ENTIRE RISK OF
 SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU.  ELECTRONIC ARTS
 DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES,
 INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY,
 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY
 RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING,
 USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.  ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST
 INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL
 MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
 UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE
 WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE
 CORRECTED.  NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR
 ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY.  SOME
 JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A
 CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY
 NOT APPLY TO YOU.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General
 Public License 3 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.

enemy-territory[edit]

Kicksecure[edit]

This page Dev/Licensing (note the /Dev, which stands for development contained in the link) is not Kicksecure licensing page. This page contains licensing discussion and references. Kicksecure licensing page can be found here: Kicksecure:Copyrights

The license for software created by Kicksecure is the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version with additional terms applicable per GNU GPL version 3 section 7.

The additional terms are based on the Doom 3 license which is Debian refers to as GPL-3+-with-id-software-additional-terms, which is Debian DFSGarchive.org (The Debian Free Software Guidelines) approved and which is therefore suitable for Debian main. Kicksecure made applied minimal changes to it:

  • Rewrite The Doom 3 BFG Edition GPL Source Code to the more common this program which is used throughout the GPL.
  • License name changed from GPL-3+-with-id-software-additional-terms to more generic (without company name) AGPL-3+-with-additional-terms-1.
  • [4]

The risk of inventing a nonfree license is non-existing. This is because:

AGPL-3+-with-additional-terms-1: 

Copyright: 2012 - 2024 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LP <adrelanos@whonix.org>
License: AGPL-3+-with-additional-terms-1
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/archive.org>.
.
On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
License version 3 can be found in the file
`/usr/share/common-licenses/AGPL-3'.
.
ADDITIONAL TERMS APPLICABLE per GNU AGPL version 3 section 7
.
1. Replacement of Section 15.  Section 15 of the AGPL shall be deleted in its
entirety and replaced with the following:
.
15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
.
THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND MERCHANTABILITY.  THE PROGRAM IS BEING
DELIVERED OR MADE AVAILABLE 'AS IS', 'WITH ALL FAULTS' AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OR
REPRESENTATION.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF
ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
.
2. Replacement of Section 16.  Section 16 of the AGPL shall be deleted in its
entirety and replaced with the following:
.
16. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ITS AFFILIATES, OR ANY
OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
LIABLE TO YOU, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, FOR ANY
DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH
THE PROGRAM(INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE
PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), WHETHER OR NOT ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER
OR SUCH OTHER PARTY RECEIVES NOTICE OF ANY SUCH DAMAGES AND WHETHER OR NOT SUCH
DAMAGES COULD HAVE BEEN FORESEEN.
.
3. LEGAL NOTICES; NO TRADEMARK LICENSE; ORIGIN.  You must reproduce faithfully
all trademark, copyright and other proprietary and legal notices on any copies
of the Program or any other required author attributions.  This license does not
grant you rights to use any copyright holder or any other party's name, logo, or
trademarks.  Neither the name of the copyright holder or its affiliates, or any
other party who modifies and/or conveys the Program may be used to endorse or
promote products derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.  The origin of the Program must not be misrepresented; you must not
claim that you wrote the original Program.  Altered source versions must be
plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original
Program.
.
4. INDEMNIFICATION.  IF YOU CONVEY A COVERED WORK AND AGREE WITH ANY RECIPIENT
OF THAT COVERED WORK THAT YOU WILL ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR THAT COVERED WORK,
YOU HEREBY AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD HARMLESS THE OTHER LICENSORS AND
AUTHORS OF THAT COVERED WORK FOR ANY DAMAGES, DEMANDS, CLAIMS, LOSSES, CAUSES OF
ACTION, LAWSUITS, JUDGMENTS EXPENSES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION REASONABLE
ATTORNEYS' FEES AND EXPENSES) OR ANY OTHER LIABILITY ARISING FROM, RELATED TO OR
IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ASSUMPTIONS OF LIABILITY.

Binary[edit]

SeaMonkey[edit]

Quote https://www.seamonkey-project.org/legal/archive.org

Our release packages and other binaries are released under the SeaMonkey End-User License Agreementarchive.org.

VirtualBox[edit]

Quote https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloadsarchive.org

The binaries are released under the terms of the GPL version 2.

Mozilla[edit]

Quote https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/eula/archive.org

Outdated policies

Mozilla End-user Software License Agreements

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/eula/firefox-3/archive.org

SleepXomXML[edit]

Quote https://web.archive.org/web/20210811205757/http://altsol.gr/sleepxomxml/archive.org

Sleep source and binaries are released under the GNU Lesser General Public License

mbed[edit]

Permissive Binary License (probably nonfree!)

https://www.mbed.com/en/licenses/permissive-binary-license/archive.org

Ubuntu[edit]

"Might have a compilation copyright."

See also Ubuntu Legal Issues.

enclosing EULA[edit]

  • outer EULA
  • outer level EULA
  • enclosing EULA

Compilation Copyright[edit]

What is a "Compilation Copyright".

Quote https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2017/ancillary-rights.htmlarchive.org (by Eben Moglen & Mishi Choudhary)

“Compilation” as a term of art in US copyright law means “a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.”2 Compilations, under US law, includes “collective works,” which are defined as “a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole.”3

Coincidentally or not, in computer programming compilation also means the "the translation of source code into (a) binary (or object code)". It's been argued that compilation of source code into binary software packages creates a compilation copyright such as by Ubuntu. See also Ubuntu Legal Issues.

Quote https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2017/ancillary-rights.htmlarchive.org (by Eben Moglen & Mishi Choudhary)

The process of making distributions involves no small amount of additional programming. Maintenance to package code, works specific to the distribution, activities and projects specifically produced or sponsored by the distribution-maker—all comprise a significant fraction of the software in major distributions. These activities produce their own independent copyrights in many instances. These work- or package-level copyrights form another part of the web of ancillary rights held by distribution makers.

For example, a distribution containing thousands of packages may be licensed overall by a EULA that conditions use on acceptance of a warranty disclaimer.

License of Source Code vs License of Binary[edit]

The source code may be under a different license than the binary. This has been demonstrated for example by Microsoft with its product VS Codearchive.org. This is well described in blog post You Think the Visual Studio Code binary you use is a Free Software? Think again.archive.org.

Similar examples include:

  • Chrome (nonfree) vs Chromium (Free)
  • Oracle JDK vs OpenJDK

Quote https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.htmlarchive.org

[...] These binaries are not free software even if the source code they are compiled from is free. [...]

Binary License[edit]

Above examples demonstrate, that:

  • binary license is a real thing,
  • that from the license of the source code not necessarily follows the license of the binary, and therefore
  • the license of the binary should be explicitly defined.

Binary License Scope[edit]

Examples might include:

  • Compilation Copyright
  • Compiled/binary packages (such as deb packages by a distributor.
  • Virtual Machine appliances such ova images.
  • Virtual Machine images such vdi, vmdk, qcow2 or raw images.
  • ISO images.
  • Archives such as tar.xz.
  • Programs compiled as an executable program.
  • Object code.

Kicksecure[edit]

GPLv3 talks about object code. It doesn't mention binary. Most users don't know what binary is and don't even have a concept of source code. However, object code is even more obscure for users. Therefore it was being considered to call it OBJECT_CODE_LICENSE_AGREEMENT.

Decided on BINARY_LICENSE_AGREEMENT since we sometimes call our downloads binary images and binary is a common term for compiled packages. Binary is a little less obscure than object code.

KICKSECURE_BINARY_LICENSE_AGREEMENTarchive.org

For considerations - which however are not part of the license - why this license was chosen, see #Kicksecure.

Arguments against Inclusion of Freedom Software created by Trolls[edit]

Microsoft acted in ways that can be be described as copyright troll / patent troll. [5] Most software developed by Microsoft is nonfree. Some software by Microsoft is Freedom Software. It is reasonable to expect being a trap to use it.

Quote https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=898259#17archive.org Ian Jackson

For example, it might promote interfaces that Microsoft prefer, over interfaces that Microsoft deprecate; or it might promote edit-a-template coding workflows (and the templates might have unfortunate licences).

It might encourage intergration with other Microsoft products.

Even if we do an assessment of these kinds of questions, and find that right now they are not a problem, Microsoft can of course change things later. The bait-and-switch business strategy is common.

In summary, I am uncomfortable with Microsoft as an upstream in this context. Of course, none of this necessarily contradicts Debian's formal standards, so a final decision would rest with maintainers/sponsors within Debian.

Patrick agrees with this, however it looks difficult to codify cautioning against such trickery strategies by policy.

Quote VS Code License:

You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the software except

Patrick finds that sketchy.

They allegedly [6] only are customizing the product.json file for custom things like branding and telemetry, which seems the right way to go about it. But if these differences are minor, and if the source code they're building from is Freedom Software anyhow, why forbid analytics of the binary?

Misc[edit]

Discussion on Revocation of GPL[edit]

If GPL was revocable, it would be a disaster for the Open Source software world.

Legal Questions regarding Open Source Licenses[edit]

https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2023-September/thread.htmlarchive.org

Wiki Links[edit]

Trademarks[edit]

CLA[edit]

Misc[edit]

Wiki License[edit]

GPL vs AGPL does not seem too important at time of writing in 2022. However, since browsers already support DRM and a future where browsers support binary code (WebAssembly or something similar) this might become important as websites might prohibit browsers to use copy/paste, download images and view non-binary, somewhat human readable source code. AGPL seems to provide stronger protections to avoid in the future of having to get into any arguments of closed down (a fork of Freedom Software documentation to proprietary software) stating "but it's just a nonfreedom webservice you're interacting with".

AGPL[edit]

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/dont-believe-the-hype-agpl-open-source-licensing-is-toxic-and-unpopular/archive.org

AGPL vs SSPL[edit]

Some software organizations, including Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and others, believed that the Affero General Public License Version 3 (AGPLv3) was insufficient in maintaining the open-source integrity of their projects, especially in a SaaS environment. This led them to adopt the Server Side Public License (SSPL).

The SSPL mandates that not only the source code of the forked software used to provide the SaaS be disclosed, but also the entire server stack, including management software, web server, and load balancer among others.

It also protects our continued investment in developing products that we distribute for free and in the open by restricting cloud service providers from offering Elasticsearch and Kibana as a service without contributing back.elasticsearcharchive.org

In the realm of the General Public License (GPL), software that "links" to GPL-licensed software must also be GPL-licensed. The term "linking" in this context is technical, referring to processes like a C compiler/linker incorporating a GPL'd library. There have been debates around the nuances of static versus dynamic linking in this regard.

The proponents of SSPL argue that the concept of a SaaS service utilizing server management software in conjunction with their software is akin to software locally "linking" to GPL'd code. They maintain that the interaction between applications in a SaaS environment, essentially passing messages from one application to another, merely represents a different technical detail compared to local linking scenarios.

In short, we believe that in today’s world, linking has been superseded by the provision of programs as services and the connection of programs over networks as the main form of program combination.Eliot Horowitz, MongoDBarchive.org

This SSPL, however, was not accepted by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). They rejected the SSPL as it was seen to violate the Open Source Definition (OSD).

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.Open Source Definition (OSD), point 9archive.org

According to OSI, this stipulation by the SSPL could potentially categorize software under this license as non-free, due to the restrictive conditions it imposes on other software distributed alongside it.

Google has an anti-AGPL policy.archive.org Google banned AGPL licensed software from its code hosting platform.archive.org

https://ssplisbad.com/archive.org

Enforcement Statement[edit]

TODO:

  • write an Enforcement Statement draft
  • study the following references as inspiration
  • goals: license enforcement; adoption; comfort
  • non-goals: profit, copyright trolling

references:

Misc[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ The Free Library. S.v. The GPL meets the UCC: does free software come with a warranty of no infringement?." Retrieved Mar 17 2019 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+GPL+meets+the+UCC%3a+does+free+software+come+with+a+warranty+of+no...-a0421626599archive.org
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190317114334/https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.suffolk.edu/dist/5/1153/files/2014/12/McJohn-THE-GPL-MEETS-THE-UCC.pdfarchive.org
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Added a "trump clausearchive.org", in other words, any conflicts or disputes between the additional terms and the GPLv3 shall be resolved in favor of the GPLv3 by adding Notwithstanding any other provision of this License (as mentioned in GPL FAQarchive.org) at the beginning of the additional terms. Later removed due to misconception. The clause actually did the opposite of the intention. Also the clause isn't needed, because, see below.
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080312014935/http://www.showusthecode.com/archive.org
  6. ↑ As per this commentarchive.org, quote:

    Here's how it works. When you build from the vscode repository, you can configure the resulting tool by customizing the product.json file. This file controls things like the Gallery endpoints, “Send-a-Smile” endpoints, telemetry endpoints, logos, names, and more.

    When we build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license.

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