On Mon, 2005-09-05 at 07:57 +0200, Ralf Corsepius wrote: > Then let me put it a bit stronger: I think Red Hat Legal is in error and > FESCO is not qualified to decide on this (Neither am I). > > Let me ask differently: Is FESCO or RH taking liability on consequences > of this decision? In the FESCO meeting (now two weeks past), I discussed the finding of RH Legal that GPL packages should include the text of the GPL license. I also stated that I thought it would be prohibitive to send every single possible license to RH Legal for review. Based on that, I proposed that all packages include the license text(s) that are relevant to them in % doc, which has been the policy since the first draft of the PackagingGuidelines. This proposal was passed in the meeting. It is now apparent to me that we require more legal clarification on specific questions. I've requested that Red Hat Legal answer the following questions: 1. In the specific case of the GPL, should Fedora Extras be including the license text as part of the binary package? 2. In the case of all other licenses, should Fedora Extras be including the license text as part of the binary package? 3. If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then please explain why Red Hat has not ever required these practices in RHEL or Fedora Core packages. 4. If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then please advise us on how we should include license texts for software packages which do not include the license text with the source distribution. Should these programs be exempt from such practices, or is it the responsibility of the packager to include the license text as a second source? 5. Is Red Hat taking legal liability for the consequences of these practices, including the possibility of mistakenly including a license text which does not match the upstream source? Or does this liability fall onto the individual packager? Hopefully, Red Hat Legal will look at these questions on Tuesday, and get us some answers as soon as possible. Based on those answers, FESCO will re-evaluate this policy. Until then, I ask for everyone's patience, and to try to keep your flames to a minimum. ~spot -- Tom "spot" Callaway: Red Hat Senior Sales Engineer || GPG ID: 93054260 Fedora Extras Steering Committee Member (RPM Standards and Practices) Aurora Linux Project Leader: http://auroralinux.org Lemurs, llamas, and sparcs, oh my!
