[Bug 195111] Re: gnuplot is not GNU and not free Software

[Henrik Nilsen Omma]

IMO the license walks a fine line between freeware and free software. It does allow you to make changes and distribute them but in an awkward form. 

The reason it's problematic is that it doesn't encourage the positive
cycle that you naturally get with other free licenses in that
improvements easily feed into the trunk of the project or alternatively
gives you the right to fork.

It's basically the minix license which allowed the distribution of patch
sets but not the full modified source. You could fork it in theory but
it would have to be forever distributed as a combination of the original
source at the version you forked and an ever-growing set of patches.

That said, debian-legal do consider this to be DFSG-free but consider it
to be a compromise. From the linked Debian bug:

> 4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
>
> The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in
> modified form _only_ if the license allows the distribution of "patch
> files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at
> build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software
> built from modified source code. The license may require derived works
> to carry a different name or version number from the original
> software. (This is a compromise. The Debian group encourages all authors
> not to restrict any files, source or binary, from being modified.)

And the copyright license for gnuplot does allow you to distribute the
modified version provided that you:

> 1. distribute the corresponding source modifications from the
>    released version in the form of a patch file along with the binaries,
 
So it does qualify to be in Debian free, even though it IS
GPL-incompatible (e.g. it may not be distributed in binary form with the
GNU readline library linked to it), because of that additional restriction.

--------

I think we should follow Debian here and recognise that while it's not a
standard free software license our own guidelines do allow for it as
Colin points out. Some may not agree with that policy choice but that's
a different matter.

To allow us to move on I'm closing the bug report.


** Changed in: gnuplot (Ubuntu)
       Status: Confirmed => Invalid

-- 
gnuplot is not GNU and not free Software
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/195111
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