[DebianGIS-dev] Task packages for Debian GIS and the Live CD

[Andreas Putzo]

Hi,

for unknown reasons i received this mail only today. Sorry for the late
response.

Am 7.8.2007 schrieb "Petter Reinholdtsen" <pere at hungry.com>:

>[Andreas Putzo]
>> At the moment josm unfortunately needs to go to contrib, too.
>
>Yeah. :(
>
>I am all for including contrib packages on the live images.  The
>problem is their non-free dependencies.
>  I'm not sure we are allowed
>according to their license to distribute them.  

This needs to be checked on a case-by-case basis then.
I don't think this is a problem (IANAL) for SUN's license unless we can
live with their 
"Operating System Distributor License" which includes besides 'usual'
non-free stuff 
nasty things like paragraph 2:
[..]
(f) you agree to defend and indemnify Sun
    and its licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities,
    settlement amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees)
    incurred in connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any
    third party that arises or results from (i) the use or distribution
    of your Operating System, or any part thereof, in any manner, or
    (ii) your use or distribution of the Software in violation of the
    terms of this Agreement or applicable law.  You shall not be
    obligated under Section 2(f)(i) if such claim would not have
    occurred but for a modification made to your Operating System by
    someone not under your direction or control, and you were in
    compliance with all other terms of this Agreement.  If the Software
    README file permits certain files to be replaced or omitted from
    your distribution, then any such replacement(s) or omission(s)
    shall not be considered a breach of Section 2(a).
[..]

> Also, for the SUN Java
>packages, there is a nasty license agreement question to answer, and
>we can not really answer it on behalf of the users. :(
>
>Not quite sure how to handle this.  I'm testing a build with both
>contrib and non-free enabled, and will see what the log say. :)

We shouldn't ask for license acceptance each time someone uses the cd 
as only few packages are affected. The only way i see at the moment is
writing
a wrapper around these programs (or bin/java) that shows the license to
the users
when it is started the first time and perhaps put a general note about it
somewhere.

There is a FAQ in the license file that deals with this:

17. What do you mean by "Present for acceptance end user licenses"
    (from #8 above)? Do I have to create a click-through license
    display when a user first installs or runs the JDK? Must my users
    accept the license?

    Your users must agree to the license terms for the JDK before
    installing it. While you aren't required to show the DLJ on first
    use or installation, you must inform them that the JDK is licensed
    software and that they must agree to the license before using
    it. A click-through mechanism is the preferred way to do this, but
    at a minimum you must present the license by some appropriate
    means for acceptance. For example, your OS download procedure
    could show the user a page that informs him or her that software
    packages included in the download may contain software licenses to
    which the user must agree before installation, and allow the user
    to review them before download.

    You can leverage your distribution's packaging technology to
    ensure that the license terms have been accepted. For instance, on
    Debian and derivative distributions, you could configure the
    package so that if the debconf key for accepting the DLJ has not
    been pre-accepted, the installation will be canceled if the
    license cannot be presented. The point of presenting the license
    is that an individual, corporation, non-profit or entity which
    will be an end user of the JRE or JDK has had a chance to review
    and agree to the DLJ. If the user or administrator pre-accepts
    the key for DLJ agreement on behalf of herself or her group then
    it is perfectly acceptable to silently install Sun Java on one or
    many computers. This is an excellent example of how you can
    leverage packaging infrastructure to comply with the terms of the
    DLJ in ways that are convenient and expected for your users.

18. How do I redistribute the JDK in my OS, so that downstream
    recipients are subject to the DLJ? Do I need to do anything
    special?

    Nothing special - just be sure to include the license in your JDK
    bundle, and inform your downstream recipients that the JDK is
    subject to the license when they download or install it.

Technically, i wouldn't consider downloading and burning a live-cd an
installation.
But i think the license needs to be accepted before java is used.
Again, IANAL. This is just my interpretation of the license and the FAQ.

After all, it's plain ugly.. :-(
Full license text can be found at:
http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/non-free/s/sun-java6/current/copyright


Cheers,
Andreas