Ion3 license violation
Tuomo Valkonen
tuomov at iki.fi
Wed Dec 12 01:46:22 PST 2007
On 2007-12-12, Aryeh M. Friedman <aryeh.friedman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Taking the project closed source and/or in some other way denying open
> access to the code is not your only option to protect your legit
> rights as a developer.
I'm not denying access to the code (not yet anyway; I'll probably
move to license-free closed-source -- for windows -- in future
projects). I just want distros to behave a bit better: to call
things by their real names, and mark obsolete versions as obsolete.
The present variant of the terms of license are:
---
Copyright (c) Tuomo Valkonen 1999-2007.
Unless otherwise indicated in components taken from elsewhere, this software
is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 ("LGPL",
reproduced below), extended and modified with the following terms:
If the name Ion(tm) or other names that can be associated with the Ion
project are used to distribute this software, then:
- A version that does not significantly differ from one of the
copyright holder's releases, must be provided by default.
- Versions not based on the copyright holder's latest release (on
the corresponding "branch", such as Ion3(tm)), must within 28 days
of this release, be prominently marked as (potentially) obsolete
and unsupported.
- Significantly altered versions may be provided only if the user
explicitly requests for those modifications to be applied, and
is prominently notified that the software is no longer considered
the standard version, and is not supported by the copyright holder.
The version string displayed by the program must describe these
modifications and the "support void" status.
Versions for which the above conditions are not satisfied, must be
renamed so that they can not be associated with the Ion project, their
executables must be given names that do not conflict with the copyright
holder's version, and neither the copyright holder nor the Ion project
may be referred to for support.
In the text of sections 0-2, 4-12, and 14-16 of the LGPL, "this License"
is to be understood to refer to the LGPL extended with these terms and,
where applicable, possible similar terms related to the names of other
works forming a whole. Sections 3 and 13 of the LGPL are void. Where
contradictory, these additional terms are primary to the LGPL.
End of terms.
---
So, these terms only affect distros, not users. You're also free to use
the code; you just have to pay attention to how you call it when you
distribute it. But even modified versions can be distributed as "Ion"
provided that the user explicitly requests for those modifications
(typically in source-based package systems).
--
Tuomo
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