Eduard Bloch wrote: > Hello, > > I have problems interpreting the following copyright statement which > covers the documenting of the ICU library from IBM (which itself is > free). IMHO it is non-free, however it is full of juristical english and > may be acceptable for main if one can extract the relevant parts from > all the blah, blah. The most interessting part is on the bottom of the > text. > > Permission to Reprint IBM Copyrighted Publications > > INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION ARMONK, NEW YORK 10594 > > PERMISSION TO REPRINT IBM COPYRIGHTED PUBLICATIONS > > IBM grants permission to reproduce the requested copyrighted > publication owned by INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION > under the conditions specified. Grants permission to reproduce; nothing else. Debian needs more.
> Such reproduction must be accompanied by the following credit > line: "Reprinted by permission from International Business > Machines Corporation copyright (year)" which should include the > years in the original copyright notice for publication named. Acceptable restriction. > The > credit line normally should appear on the page where the > reproduction appears either under the title or as a footnote. Unsure, but "normally should" seems to give some broad leeway. > When more than one IBM publication is excerpted in the same > publication, a consolidated credit paragraph may be used on the > title page, or in a conveniently viewable manner, listing the > titles, corresponding copyright notices, and references to the > points where excerpts appear. That's good. > It is the understanding of INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES > CORPORATION that the purpose for which its publications are being > reproduced is accurate and true as stated in your attached > request. So the permission only applies to a specific "attached request"?... > Permission to quote from or reprint IBM publications is limited to > the purpose and quantities originally requested and must not be > construed as a blanket license to use the material for other > purposes or to reprint other IBM copyrighted material. ...Yep, it does. That's not a free license. It may be distributable in 'non-free' if you write your "attached request" broadly enough. :-) > IBM reserves the right to withdraw permission to reproduce > copyrighted material whenever, in its discretion, it feels that > the privilege of reproducing its material is being used in a way > detrimental to its interest or the above instructions are not > being followed properly to protect its copyright. Non-free. > No permission is granted to use trademarks of International > Business Machines Corporation and its affiliates apart from the > incidental appearance of such trademarks in the titles, text, and > illustrations of the named publications. The appearance should not > be of a manner which might cause confusion of origin or appear to > endorse non-IBM products. Any proposed use of trademarks apart > from such incidental appearance requires separate approval in > writing and ordinarily cannot be given. This is fine; trademark protection clauses should all look like this. > THIS PERMISSION IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER > EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED > WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR > PURPOSE. Fine, usual disclaimer. > Notices <snip> These are all informational and do not actually affect the license, as far as I can tell. > COPYRIGHT LICENSE: > > This information contains sample application programs in source > language, which illustrates programming techniques on various > operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these > sample programs in any form without payment to IBM, This is a license grant for the 'sample programs', and it's a broader license grant than the general grant for the 'documentation'... > for the > purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing > application programs conforming to the application programming > interface for the operating platform for which the sample programs > are written. ...and this is a non-free restriction. > These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all > conditions. IBM, therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, > serviceability, or function of these programs. Usual disclaimer. > If you are viewing this information softcopy, the photographs and > color illustrations may not appear. Informational, no effect. -- There are none so blind as those who will not see.