[Savannah-hackers] Re: mldonkey licensing

[Free Software Foundation]

I have only one comment; it is below.

On Wed, 2002-08-21 at 12:03, Mathieu Roy wrote:
> > >  Are "the protocol files" part of mldonkey? Are "the protocol files"
> > >  required in order to run mldonkey?  If so, it means that your
> > >  project depends on undefined licensed software - that we cannot
> > >  qualify as free.  You never talked about this particular
> > >  requirement.
> > 
> > No, the eDonkey protocol files are not distributed as sources with
> > mldonkey. They are not required to compile and run mldonkey. Only the
> > eDonkey plugin depends on these files. I found it was more convenient
> > for mldonkey users to have a binary version of these files in the
> > package to directly compile this plugins with other ones, instead of
> > putting this plugin on another site, and have each mldonkey user
> > download it separately. If it is required, I will do it anyway.
> > 
> > Without this plugin, mldonkey still contains a lot of functionnalities:
> > - Access to Open Napster, Gnutella, OpenFT, Soulseek and Direct
> >      Connect networks.
> > - Two different GUIs.
> > - Different libraries and Ocaml modules that can be used independantly
> >      of mldonkey core.
> > - A chat program.
> 
> Ok.
> I personally think it would be better to release also the protocol
> files as Free Software (I do not understand why you don't do so) but
> your are the author and have the right to do what you want with thoses
> files.
> 
> As long as mldonkey can run without thoses files, it still can be
> hosted on savannah.
> 
> As long thoses files are not licensed under a GPL-compatible license 
> (an undefined license can be, potentially, proprietary), they cannot
> be hosted on savannah.  

An undefined (by which I assume you mean unstated) license is always
proprietary;  the default is "all rights reserved".

-- 
-Dave Turner
Free Software Licensing Guru
This is not legal advice.  If you need legal advice, see a lawyer.