[Spam-discuss] licensing of spamd/spamc

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

Hello, Craig.

We are using SpamAssassin as part of a system-wide SPAM solution here at
the FSF and the GNU project.  We very much want to use your spamd/spamc
code that allows SpamAssassin to run via a daemon.

However, we noted that your licensing information is a bit ambiguous, and
we wondered if you would clarify it for us.

spamc.c says:

> /*
>  * This code is copyright 2001 by Craig Hughes
>  * It is licensed for use with SpamAssassin according to the terms of
>  * the Perl Artistic License The text of this license is included in the
>  * SpamAssassin distribution in the file named "License"
>  */

Meanwhile, spamd.raw says:

> ############################################################
> # The code in this file is copyright 2001 by Craig Hughes  #
> # It is licensed for use with the SpamAssassin distribution#
> # under the terms of the Perl Artistic License, the text of#
> # which is included as the file named "License"            #
> ############################################################


We hope very much that you meant to release your software under the same
license as perl itself.  As you may know, the license of perl itself is
not just the Artistic license, but the disjunctive dual license of GPL or
Artistic.

Here is the typical way that is typically stated (and this text indeed
shows up in one of your files):

>     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>     it under the terms of either:
>
>   a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
>   Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any later version,
>   or
>
>   b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.


Would you be willing to clarify the statements to note that you do intend
to license the spamc/spamd under the same license as perl itself?

I suggest you rewrite your notices like this:

  Copyright (C) 2001, Craig Huges.

  You may copy, modify and/or distribute this software under the same
  terms as perl itself.  The full terms are listed in the file "License"
  that comes with this software.


If you have concerns about doing this, I would be happy to discuss them
with you, via phone or email.

[ Feel free to reply back to me directly, or if you are comfortable doing
  so, to the whole <address@hidden> list.  That list is the
  internal technical people at FSF who are working on this SPAM
  solution. ]

--
Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director
Free Software Foundation     |  Phone: +1-617-542-5942
59 Temple Place, Suite 330   |  Fax:   +1-617-542-2652
Boston, MA 02111-1307  USA   |  Web:   http://www.gnu.org

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