Re: Did nmap just become non-free?

[Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1345 bytes --]

Brett Gilio <brettg@gnu.org> writes:

> Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org> writes:
>>
>> ...I'm fairly certain this is not an acceptable license for Guix, or
>> free software distributions in general.
>>
>
> This is definitely not a consistent license for us.

Having re-read the original text (without the annotations), the thing
that stands out is:

  Proprietary software companies wishing to use or incorporate Covered
  Software within their programs must contact Licensor to purchase a
  separate license. Open source developers who wish to incorporate parts
  of Covered Software into free software with conflicting licenses may
  write Licensor to request a waiver of terms.

From <https://svn.nmap.org/nmap/LICENSE>.

So a "proprietary software company" cannot use or incorporate nmap
within a program, even if that program is free (as in software)?

>> So I think we should revert the license change, as well as the update
>> to 7.90 which introduced the new license.
>>
>> Now to read the previous license text, perhaps that will help me sleep..
>>
>
>
> As to how to fix it, I think we will need to revert the change, and also
> make note of the FINAL version of nmap that was still compliant with FSDG.

I'll see what licensing@fsf.org has to say first.

PS: Licenses make terrible bed-side reading!

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 507 bytes --]