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

[Nick Lamb]

On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 04:57:48PM +0100, Oliver Rauch wrote:
> Please do not publish an xsane version that does not show the license
> dialog.

I thought about this, because I was a bit annoyed by this dialog too, but
then I concluded that the GPL actually requires downstream developers to
include the dialog in any interactive software derived from XSane. So in
fact although Oliver is being polite here, it would be a GPL violation
to completely remove his license dialog.

I think the dialog should probably not show the whole GPL (because all
the sections about modifying and re-distributing code don't apply when you
just want to scan a picture) but the NO WARRANTY section should stay, a
bit like e.g. the start message in GDB. But that's just my opinion.

Note that anyone who WANTS to provide a guarantee that XSane won't cause
any damage or malfunction can do so, and can change their version of XSane
to give a message which explains how to contact them for a refund, damage
payment or insurance claim. I would suggest charging AT LEAST $100 for
such a warranty and drawing up a solid contract limiting the liability.

Nick.