license

[Cliff Wells]

On Sun, 2003-01-19 at 17:11, Arthur wrote:
> Tim writes -
> 
> >As I said, the PSF license requires that derived works include a brief
> >summary of changes made from the base distribution. That, along with
> >preserving the PSF licence and copyright notice, is roughly all it
> requires.
> >There are no restrictions on the nature of changes derived works can make.
> 
> There is no notice here of the intention to modify an inplace Python
> installation and no notification that it has done so after it has done so.
> 
> One is left with a nonstandard installation, without notification of the
> fact that is going to happen or that it did in fact happen.
> 
> The fact that the non-standard change persists after doing an uninstall, is
> fuel to the fire, but not necessarily pertinent to whether there is a
> license violation.
> 
> I would certainly see no problem arguing that this is indeed a license
> violation.
> 
> I am curious why Terry is so adamant that it is not. That my suggestion is
> even impertinent.

I'd agree with you that such a modification is annoying and rude.  I
think Terry is taking the side of "you're using someone's code for free,
and then complaining about it" which also has some validity.  I'm not
sure what the package in question is, but I have to ask: does it make
sense for it to do this?  If the package were, for instance, a modified
version of Python itself, or if it modified the behavior of Python in a
fundamental way, then perhaps replacing the top-level documentation
might make sense.

> Not that anyone wants to be picayune.  The ugliness is the real point. But
> it is,isn't or might be a particular kind of ugliness.

Personally, I think you should fork the code.  Anger can be a great
motivator.  Or perhaps just provide a patch and every time the package
in question gets announced on comp.lang.python.announce, announce your
patch right afterwards ;)  That might even provoke the package author
into making the change.


-- 
Cliff Wells, Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726 x308  (800) 735-0555 x308