[sane-devel] Is click-through license needed for xsane?

[Oliver Rauch]

Kevin Dalley wrote:
> 
> Could you explain the reason for the click-through license on xsane?
> On the Debian distribution of xsane, some users have complained about
> the annoyance of having a click-through GPL license.
> 
> Let me quote from Jason McCarty's email:
> 
> Note that the GPL explicitly allows for running the program without
> agreeing to the license: "The act of running the Program is not restricted
> [by the license]..." (clause 0). Anyway, a click-through is totally
> unnecessary for the GPL. You implicitly accept it when you commit any of
> the activities covered by it, because otherwise you'd be violating
> copyright.
> 
> I'm sorry for wasting your time with this silly stuff, but click-throughs
> irk the hell out of me (even though I accept the GPL anyway) and I
> genuinely believe that this situation goes against that part of the spirit
> of the GPL (the part that states you don't have to accept the license to
> use the software).
> 
> The enforceability if GPL is discussed in:
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html
> 
> I believe that the GPL allows me to rewrite xsane to remove the
> click-through license, but I would like to have some discussion before
> making such a decision.

Hello Kevin.

1)
The license dialog comes up once when the user runs a new version of xsane, it does
not come up every time.

2)
>From the view of the GPL a program is not forced to display the GPL, but it also is 
not prohibited to display the license.

3)
The reason why I enforce the accept license dialog after each update or new installation
of xsane is not the license itself, it is the part:

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
==>	WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

It is (or at least may be) relevant in some contries that the user accepts this
exclusion of warranty, otherwise I (the author) could be made responsible for any
damage (e.g xsane could destroy the scanner hardware, or it could remove important
files) that is caused by the program.

4)
>From the view of the GPL you are free to change xsane that it does not display
the license any more. But in this case you have to add your name to the version
of xsane and document that you have removed the license dialog. If this xsane
version causes any damage you propably can be made responsible for this damage
and you may be forced to pay compensation for the damage.



If there is a user that complains about this dialog I say:
this is the price you have to pay for the software I created.

Please do not publish an xsane version that does not show the license
dialog.

Bye
Oliver

-- 
Homepage:	http://www.rauch-domain.de
sane-umax:	http://www.rauch-domain.de/sane-umax
xsane:		http://www.xsane.org
E-Mail:		mailto:Oliver.Rauch@rauch-domain.de