Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 18:13:41 -0800 From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.Org> To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: green@unixhelp.org, mark@grondar.za, donegan@quick.net, scrappy@hub.org, dcs@newsguy.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: postfix's copyright (Re: HEADS UP: Postfix is coming. new uid, gid required.) Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19981231181341.0098e880@localhost> In-Reply-To: <199901010056.QAA11028@hub.freebsd.org> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812311916020.3621-100000@janus.syracuse.net> <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812311916020.3621-100000@janus.syracuse.net>
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At 04:56 PM 12/31/98 -0800, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote: > exim is GPL. (stated explicitly at http://www.exim.org) > qmail has different license terms. > Postfix license requires that IF you provide "any feedback, > including materials, error corrections, Software Derivatives, > enhancements, suggestions and the like" to IBM then "You grant IBM a > world-wide, royalty-free right to use, copy, distribute, sublicense > and prepare derivative works". > > IF you dont provide it to IBM, they have no claim to your work. But what are the claims of the authors and their employers! I just downloaded the 19981222 snapshot and I cannot find a single copyright notice. As such, I don't know what restrictions, if any, there might be under copyright of any of the authors or their employers. Yes, there is a license file... but nothing binding me to it (no contract or copyright notice). It also appears that non-IBM identies may have rights to this software to which IBM is cannot grant rights for. Note: true software licenses are bound by contract, most so called 'public licenses' (GPL, MozillaPL, NPL, OpenLDAP PL) are NOT 'licenses' but restrictions held under copyright law. (note, I'm not a lawyer, but I have a fair amount of experience with legalese). I only point this out because without a copyright notice, this license in meaningless. For items to be OpenLDAP contributed software we require the copyright holder to place appropriate copyright notices within the package and to clear state what rights are held by their employers. Without such a notice, one must assume that "All Rights Reserved." I strong recommend that you have the author of postfix, at a minimum, create a COPYRIGHT file at the top level of distribution clarifying the use and redistribution restrictions. As currently packaged, the postfix is not freely redistributable. I strongly recommend that someone close to the postfix project point out these issues. (You are welcomed to forward this message to INDIVIDUALS responsible for the development of postfix). I still think postfix should be a port... at least until it's out of BETA. I do not think it wise to import somthing which has not been widely tested (FreeBSD.org use isn't wide enough testing). Making it a port will allow others to test it. If it does prove to be suitable as a replacement (and/or suitable to coexist), great! Kurt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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