[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#724947: [orthanc] Non free file

[Sebastien Jodogne]

On 09/30/2013 12:23 AM, bastien ROUCARIES wrote:
> Package: orthanc
> Severity: serious
>
> FPL is non dfsg: it does not allow modification.
> Please move to non-free/repackage.

Dear Bastien,

Thanks for your bug report. I am the upstream developer of Orthanc [1].

I am unsure that the FPL you refer to is the same as the FPL of the 
SHA-1 package by Paul E. Jones that is shipped with Orthanc [2]. Here is 
the content of the FPL from SHA-1:

"Copyright (C) 1998, 2009
Paul E. Jones <paulej at packetizer.com>

Freeware Public License (FPL)

This software is licensed as "freeware."  Permission to distribute this 
software in source and binary forms, including incorporation into other 
products, is hereby granted without a fee.  THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 
'AS IS' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT 
NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS 
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE AUTHOR SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY 
DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EITHER DIRECTLY OR 
INDIRECTLY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING 
RENDERED INACCURATE."


This looks to me like a permissive MIT license. I have always thought 
that this license is compatible with the FSF philosophy. This is 
evidently not the same license as the so-called Foundation Public 
License by Bridgethink (also nicknamed FPL), which is indeed 
incompatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines [3].

If you do confirm that the FPL of the SHA-1 package is incompatible with 
Debian policy, I will immediately switch to another library (Orthanc 
0.6.2 is to be released this week). I will most probably use boost::uuid 
if this change is required.

Regards,
Sébastien-

PS: I also forward this mail to the "debian-legal" mailing list.


[1] http://packages.debian.org/sid/orthanc
[2] https://code.google.com/p/orthanc/source/browse/Resources/sha1/
[3] http://www.libroscope.org/FPL-la-licence-libere-l-argent (in French 
only)