[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

Re: [TSVN] New License in RTF

From: Simon Large <simon_at_skirridsystems.co.uk>
Date: 2005-08-16 11:42:02 CEST

Rainer Müller wrote:
> Simon Large wrote:
>
>>I am not sure if this is the right text for our EULA because it only
>>describes the SVN component, not the TSVN binaries. Not sure what we
>>should use though. Extracts from the GPL? Yuck!
>
>
> I think it is the wrong document. Subversion uses the Apache Software Foundation
> License but with Collab.net as copyright holder.
> TortoiseSVN is released under the terms of the GPL and therefore the GPL should
> be displayed in the installer. I'm not a lawyer and I can't tell if TSVN has to
> include the license of Subversion itself, too.

This looks like one big minefield. I just had another look at some of
the LICENSE files. Subversion itself uses the file we are currently
using, which includes this statement:

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Effectively that says that we have to reproduce their complete license
file. In fact we do that anyway by including it in the install, so we
don't necessarily have to display it in the installer.

APR uses a different license which includes:

4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
    Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
    modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
    meet the following conditions:

    (a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
        Derivative Works a copy of this License; and
<snip>
    (d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
        distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
        include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
        within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
        pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
        of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
        as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
        documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
<snip>

We can get around (d) because NOTICE is included with the source which
we provide using our source distribution. But arguably (a) implies that
the LICENSE file must be distributed with our binaries.

Having said that, Subversion do not distribute the APR license file with
the Win32 binary installer, although they do distribute the Berkeley DB
license file. That does not necessarily mean they are right - it could
be an oversight.

Maybe the safest course is to supply all the license files that we are
required to as part of the distribution, and display a short and sweet
eula which points to the license files and the various source
distributions. Even if no-one ever reads the eula, it is not doing
anything at all for us in its present form.

Simon

-- 
        ___
   oo  // \\      "De Chelonian Mobile"
  (_,\/ \_/ \     TortoiseSVN
    \ \_/_\_/>    The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control
    /_/   \_\     http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@tortoisesvn.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@tortoisesvn.tigris.org
Received on Tue Aug 16 11:41:54 2005

This is an archived mail posted to the TortoiseSVN Dev mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.