[forum] [XFree86] Announcement: Modification to the base XFree86(TM) license.

[David Dawes]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 09:27:59PM +0100, Matthieu Herrb wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm also not satisfied by this license change. I fail to see what is
>the real benefit of the project in the new formulation. 
>Most of the users of XFree86 -based product already recognize and
>appreciate the contribution of the project to the software community
>in general. 
>
>The new 3rd clause is very constraining for people distributings CDs
>or other material that includes XFree86, and I'm not sure if the
>project has the resources to make sure it's respected by all products
>that include XFree86. 
>
>For instance OpenBSD 3.5 is going to ship the code in the XFree86
>repository as of now (without a couple of files that already use the
>new wordings) in order to avoid the trouble that following the new
>license would cause (the need to print it on the CD booklet). 

This begs a couple of questions that I have yet to see answered:

  1. If other third-party contributions are acknowledged in, say, a CD
     booklet, why shouldn't XFree86's be?

  2. How did distributions that shipped Apache under its 1.1 licence,
     which is similar to the XFree86 1.1 licence, satisfy its
     similar requirements?  Was this ever an issue for OpenBSD?

David
-- 
http://www.XFree86.org/~dawes