Re: [gNewSense-users] Proprietary software in gNewSense - 'Beneath a Steel Sky' and 'Flight of the Amazon Queen'

[Guy Johnston]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Brian Brazil wrote:
>>> which reads "You may not charge a fee for the game itself. This
>>> includes reselling the game as an
>>> individual item."
>> That doesn't make it non-free software.
> 
> That is not my understanding of the definition of free software.  For
> instance, the FSF says of the Aladdin Free Public License, "Despite its
> name, this is not a free software license because it does not allow
> charging for distribution".  In general, the FSF encourages the selling
> of free software, individually and in aggregate.
> 
> Matt Flaschen
> 
> 
> 
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> 

I think what Brian means is that it's not a significant restriction because you 
can distribute it
commercially with other software, and I can see what he means. In the licence, 
it says "You may
charge a reasonable copying fee for this archive, and may distribute it in 
aggregate as part of a
larger & possibly commercial software distribution (such as a Linux 
distribution or magazine
coverdisk)", so that means you can charge whatever fee you want as long as you 
include it with at
least one other piece of software, no matter how trivial it is. I agree that 
that isn't really a
significant restriction of the freedoms to distribute copies and to distribute 
modified versions. If
it prohibited commercial distribution completely, then it would be, and I think 
the FSF would
classify that as "semi-free software".

The list of licences on the GNU website mentions a licence for fonts which is 
similar to this (the
SIL Open Font License), and it says "The Open Font License (including its 
original release, version
1.0) is a free copyleft license for fonts. Its only unusual requirement is that 
fonts be distributed
with some computer program, rather than alone. Since a simple Hello World 
program will satisfy the
requirement, it is harmless. Neither we nor SIL recommend the use of this 
license for anything other
than fonts."

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