Bug#1150704: Contains code licensed under CeCILL-C which is not dfsg-free

[Mechtilde Stehmann]

Package: licensecheck
Version: 3.3.9-1
Severity: serious
Tags: upstream
X-Debbugs-Cc: mechtilde at debian.org

Hello

studying how licensecheck works I found this file

t/exception/Cecill/tv_implementpoly.reference

which is under the

CeCILL-C with Sollya-4.1 exception

The license CeCILL is not compliant with the DFSG because of § 13.2


     Mandatory Choice of Venue (Article 13.2)

     The Clause: "Failing an amicable solution... disagreements or
     disputes shall be referred to the Paris Courts having jurisdiction..."
     DFSG Conflict: This is considered a "Choice of Venue" clause,
     which the debian-legal community almost universally rejects as
     non-free. By forcing any user or contributor—whether they live in
     New Zealand, Argentina, or Japan—to travel to Paris and navigate
     the French legal system to defend themselves, the license imposes
     an unreasonable, prohibitive burden. Debian considers this a
     restriction on the core freedoms to use, modify, and distribute
     the software (acting essentially as a fee or restriction,
     violating the spirit of DFSG #1: Free Redistribution).

     Discrimination Against Amateurs/Beginners (Preamble & Article 9.1)

     The Clause: The text states that the software's "use is reserved
     for developers and experienced professionals having in-depth computer
     knowledge."
     DFSG Conflict: This directly conflicts with DFSG #5: No Discrimination
     Against Persons or Groups. A free software license cannot say that a
     tool is only for experts, businesses, or researchers. If this text is
     interpreted legally as a usage restriction (rather than just a
     poorly-worded warranty disclaimer), it prevents students, amateurs,
     and beginners from exercising their right to use the software.

     The Obnoxious UI Advertising Requirement (Article 6.4)

     The Clause: The licensee must "ensure that use of the Software, its
     intellectual property notices and the fact that it is governed by the
     Agreement is indicated in a text that is easily accessible, 
specifically
     from the interface of any Derivative Software."
     DFSG Conflict: This clause acts as an overly aggressive "advertising
     clause." While preserving copyright notices in source files is required
     and DFSG-compliant, forcing developers to alter the user interface of
     any derivative software restricts how developers can build and design
     their own tools. This conflicts with DFSG #3: Derived Works, which 
requires
     that developers have the freedom to modify the software and create
     derivatives without arbitrary restrictions on how those derivatives 
must
     function or be displayed (for example, if you make a headless, command-
     line, or embedded derivative, surfacing text in an "interface" is
     practically impossible).

     Over-Restrictive Notice Preservation (Article 6.4)

     The Clause: The licensee undertakes "to reproduce said notices, in an
     identical manner, in the copies of the Software modified or not".
     DFSG Conflict: While DFSG #4 allows licenses to require the integrity
     of the author's source code and copyright notices, demanding that 
notices
     be preserved in an "identical manner" without allowing any format
     modifications can be a minor friction point for DFSG freeness. If a 
Debian
     packager needs to convert documentation formats or refactor code
     structures, absolute identical reproduction of notice blocks can create
     technical/legal hurdles.

Kind regards

Mechtilde


-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
   APT prefers testing
   APT policy: (400, 'testing'), (300, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 7.2.9+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE 
not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages licensecheck depends on:
ii  libfeature-compat-class-perl    0.08-1
ii  libfeature-compat-try-perl      0.05-1
ii  libio-interactive-perl          1.027-1
ii  liblog-any-adapter-screen-perl  0.141-2
ii  liblog-any-perl                 1.720-1
ii  libnamespace-clean-perl         0.27-2
ii  libpath-iterator-rule-perl      1.015-2
ii  libpath-tiny-perl               0.150-1
ii  libpod-constants-perl           0.19-2
ii  libstring-copyright-perl        0.003014-1
ii  libstring-escape-perl           2010.002-3
ii  libstring-license-perl          0.0.11-1
ii  perl                            5.42.3-1

Versions of packages licensecheck recommends:
ii  libregexp-pattern-license-perl  3.11.2-1

Versions of packages licensecheck suggests:
ii  bash-completion  1:2.16.0-8

-- no debconf information
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