Bug#854679: beneath-a-steel-sky: DFSG compliance, commercial purpose

[Javier Serrano Polo]

X-Debbugs-CC: James 'Ender' Brown <ender at scummvm.org>, Ian Jackson <ijackson at chiark.greenend.org.uk>

El dj 09 de 02 de 2017 a les 15:35 +0100, Markus Koschany va escriure:
> The game license is fully DFSG compliant. This has been discussed at
> length in the past, e.g. https://bugs.debian.org/478898

I have read again that bug report and its references. Discussion has
happened over the availability of source code, editors, trademarks, and
logos.

One relevant discussion in debian-legal is
https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/06/msg00546.html. It looks
like this is the same problem with Bitstream Vera font:

        no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be
        sold by itself.

Another one is
https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/08/msg00009.html.
It seems to be a problem similar to the use of the Artistic license:

        You may not charge a fee for this Package itself.

It appears these licenses are considered DFSG compliant because this
kind of clauses are deemed ineffective.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/08/msg00016.html

The Artistic license in base-files looks like Artistic License 1.0. The
GNU project has not made an extensive analysis of this license:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ArtisticLicense
and they recommend to avoid its use.

The Clarified Artistic License fixes this sentence:

        You may not charge a license fee for the right to use this
        Package itself.

If these clauses are indeed ineffective, why do authors include them
anyway?

It is said that you can effectively sell the software itself by applying
a trick: pretend to sell a "nifty screensaver", even sell a whole free
distro such as Debian. But as I am afraid, a judge may see through that
and conclude that you are applying a trick and effectively selling the
software itself.

Do you know about any actual sentences regarding this facet? Does this
make the licenses fit for international use?
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