[xmlroff] question about the license

[Tony Graham]

On Wed, Feb 20 2008 05:04:15 +0000, petersen at redhat.com wrote:
> (I am completely new to xmlroff, so forgive me if I look clumsy wading
> in like this.:)

Not a problem.  Welcome to xmlroff and the xmlroff-list.

> I wanted to ask about the license of xmlroff.  I was trying to make an
> package with the idea of hopefully submitting it for inclusion in
> Fedora [1], and I noticed that the license has a restriction that the
> software is not to be used for nuclear work.
>
> While I sympathize with the gesture (not sure how easy it is to
> enforce in practice), it unfortunately makes the software non-free at
> least context of Fedora [2]: ie meaning that it cannot be included in
> the Fedora linux distribution.  So I am wondering if you would
> consider changing the license (basically dropping that final sentence
> from COPYING would be sufficent) so as to make xmlroff free software.

You are in good company.  The same issue came up for Debian, and we are
in the process of asking Sun to remove the 'nuclear' paragraph from the
license.

Sun is even more committed to open source these days than it was in 2002
when the license was chosen, but Sun also left xmlroff to sink or swim
back in 2003, so fixing the license is unlikely to be a priority for
Sun's legal eagles.

Rest assured, when the license is changed, it will be announced on this
list.  It will probably also prompt a release with new minor version
number just there's an obvious break between the two licenses.

Regards,


Tony.