"BSD-LBNL license"

Hi All;

I'm wondering about the DFSGness of arprec (http://crd.lbl.gov/~dhbailey/mpdist/)

Copying says this:

,----
| This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Division
| of Mathematical, Information, and Computational Sciences of the
| U.S. Department of Energy under contract numbers DE-AC03-76SF00098 and
| DE-AC02-05CH11231.
|
| Copyright (c) 2003-2009, The Regents of the University of California,
| through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (subject to receipt of
| any required approvals from U.S. Dept. of Energy) All rights reserved.
|
| By downloading or using this software you are agreeing to the modified
| BSD license that is in file "BSD-LBNL-License.doc" in the main ARPREC
| directory. If you wish to use the software for commercial purposes
| please contact the LBNL Technology Transfer Department at TTD RemoveThis @lbl.gov
| or call 1-510-286-6457.
`----

The text of BSD-LBNL-License.doc (blech, I know) is as follows

,----
|
| Berkeley Software Distribution Agreement
| Software: main.cpp library
| This License Agreement is entered into by The Regents of the
| University of California, Department of Energy contract-operators of
| the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley,
| CA 94720 (“Berkeley Lab”), and the entity listed below (“you” or
| "Licensee") having its place of business at the address below:
|
| Company/Institution (“Licensee”):
|
| Name of responsible Licensee employee:
|
| Title or position:
|
| Department (if applicable):
|
| Address:
|
| City / State / Postal Code / Country:
|
| Tel: Fax:
|
| E-Mail:
|
| The parties now agree as follows:
|
| 1. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
| modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
| met:
|
| (1) Redistributions of source code must retain the copyright notice,
| this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
|
| (2) Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the copyright
| notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
| documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
|
| (3) Neither the name of the University of California, Lawrence
| Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy nor the names of
| its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
| from this software without specific prior written permission.
|
| 2. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
| "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
| LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
| A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
| OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
| SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
| LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
| DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
| THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
| (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
| OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
|
| 3. You are under no obligation whatsoever to provide any bug fixes,
| patches, or upgrades to the features, functionality or performance of
| the source code ("Enhancements") to anyone; however, if you choose to
| make your Enhancements available either publicly, or directly to
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, without imposing a separate
| written license agreement for such Enhancements, then you hereby grant
| the following license: a non-exclusive, royalty-free perpetual license
| to install, use, modify, prepare derivative works, incorporate into
| other computer software, distribute, and sublicense such enhancements
| or derivative works thereof, in binary and source code form.
`----


The weird parts (as far as I can tell) are

- the notion that downloading you agree to the license. This is
obnoxious, but there don't seem to be any applicable terms of the
license if you don't redistribute. I guess the authors are
protected against people who damage their computer just by
downloading.

- the comment about "commercial use". This does not seem to be
reflected in the terms of the license.

- point 3 about "Enhancements". I think it is ok, but is slightly
ambiguous about to whom the royalty free license is granted.
IMVHO, it passes the desert island and dissident tests.

Any comments?

I'm not subscribed to debian-legal, so please CC me.

d




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David Bremner <bremner.DeleteThis@unb.ca>
> The text of BSD-LBNL-License.doc (blech, I know) is as follows
[...]
> The weird parts (as far as I can tell) are
[...]
> - the comment about "commercial use". This does not seem to be
> reflected in the terms of the license.
[...]
> Any comments?
>
> I'm not subscribed to debian-legal, so please CC me.

The above is the only one that makes me doubt its acceptability under
the DFSG. I'm also mildly concerned that this seems to be a licence
for a specific licensee which is incomplete and not a general public
licence in the usual way, although it seems like it is offered to
everyone without need to notify, so it might be OK.

I'd try asking the TTD.DeleteThis@lbl.gov address to confirm BSD-LBNL-License.doc
can be used for commercial use as long as those terms are acceptable.

Hope that helps,
--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct


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