💾 Archived View for thrig.me › blog › 2024 › 02 › 10 › license-kerfuffles.gmi captured on 2024-07-09 at 01:17:29. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-03-21)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
xscreensaver patched in Debian
xscreensaver has been patched on various OS (especially on stable branches that are maintained for some amount of time) to not include a timebomb nagware message; however, the author wishes that this timebomb nagware always be included; however, the software is open source, so in theory patches that remove undesirable behaviors should be okay?
In a similar case the IPFilter author argued against modifications of the source code; this caused IPFilter to be removed from OpenBSD, and prompted a license audit, which in turn caused various removals, clarifications, and other such activity.
https://www.linux.com/news/openbsd-and-ipfilter-still-fighting-over-license-disagreement/
These are ad-hoc agreements, if only to disagree.
Over in GPLandia, meanwhile, the (American) court system is asking if anyone (not just the author) can bring a suit, a fairly important point as authors may not care to bring a suit, or may not have the large sacks of Mammon and time required to navigate the court system, or may be dead (possibly this last point repeats the first).
https://blog.tidelift.com/will-the-new-judicial-ruling-in-the-vizio-lawsuit-strengthen-the-gpl
Future prognosis: humans human, which means more license kerfuffles.
For example less offers no way (that I've discovered) to disable the help key that is so prone to be hit by accident, so therefore
--- command.c.orig Sun Feb 11 05:01:19 2024
+++ command.c Sun Feb 11 04:46:51 2024
@@ -1368,6 +1368,7 @@
break;
case A_HELP:
+ break;
/*
* Help.
*/