PPA licenses

[Matthew Revell]

Matthew East wrote:

>> I didn't attend the devel-meeting today. How was the discussion ?

> I had a look at the log: the position seems to be that the licenses
> for packages which are accepted for redistribution in Ubuntu are ok,
> and I presume this means packages included in Ubuntu's "main"
> component only.

Here's an edited excerpt from the meeting log:

04:30	mrevell	"What is the position for packages which contain material 
which is distributed under licenses which aren't in [the opensource.org] 
  list but which are still free?"
04:30	mrevell	He continues: "Although the opensource.org website itself 
appears to be licensed under a Creative Commons (attribution) license, 
no Creative Commons licenses appear in the list, nor does the GFDL."
04:31	jamesh	mrevell: are we talking about source code material or 
non-source code materiel?
04:31	mrevell	jamesh: In mdke's particular case, he's talking about 
Ubuntu documentation.
04:32	SteveA	mrevell: on the licence issue, what packages have GFDL or 
CC stuff that have given rise to this question?
04:32	mrevell	jamesh: Some of which is GPL, some GFDL and so on.
04:32	mrevell	SteveA: I believe mdke is looking at using PPA to create 
packages for the docs team.
04:32	SteveA	I think if something is good enough for the CC, it's good 
enough for us.  That's just, like, my opinion.
04:32	SteveA	kiko: what do you think?
04:33	SteveA	the CC as in the Community Council
04:33	jamesh	SteveA: a lot of GNU packages have GFDL documentation which 
would bar them from our current T.O.S.
04:33	SteveA	not the Creative Commons
04:33	kiko	I agree with SteveA
04:33	kiko	so perhaps our TOS needs amending
04:33	SteveA	jamesh: I'm proposing amending the TOS to include GFDL if 
the Com Coun has approved GFDL stuff for inclusion in ubuntu
04:33	kiko	what SteveA said!
04:33	danilos	I'd agree on that one
04:34	mpt	SteveA, Ubuntu CC approval makes sense as long as PPAs are 
only for Ubuntu
04:34	SteveA	mrevell: so, the answer is, if you get a request to allow a 
licence that isn't in our TOS
04:34	SteveA	mrevell: then check whether the CC allows it in Ubuntu
04:34	mrevell	SteveA: thank you
04:34	SteveA	mrevell: if so, then ask on the launchpad list for an 
addition to our TOS
04:34	elmo	GFDL is fine for Ubuntu
04:34	SteveA	(perhaps by filing a bug)

> That satisfies me fine, because the packages I'm interested in are;
> although if PPA is provided to people for more systems than Ubuntu
> (Ubuntu derivatives and Debian?), this may become problematic, as I
> think mpt pointed out during the meeting.

> If that does give rise to problems, I wonder if it might be possible
> to combine references to opensource.org with a reference to GNU
> accepted free licenses [1]. That would cover the licenses I'm
> interested in and hopefully most others.
> 
> [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#SoftwareLicenses

Celso, do you have an opinion on that?

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