Hi, I've just published a new version of the Hacking License that receipts some of the objections proposed on debian-legal and on copyleft-next.
In particular, I have 1) removed requirement to change the logo (see [1] from Francesco Poli). That requirements was not there to protect the brand of the authors but to protect the users from being fooled to use a modified version instead of the original; 2) left requirement to change the name, because the definition of "use" already allows the users to store a Derived Work in place of the Hack; 3) clarified the permissions granted to organizations, that can only copy and/or distribute the Hack (see [2] from Paul Jakma); 4) slighly improved the Preamble
The canonical url is still at http://www.tesio.it/documents/HACK.txt (SHA256: 8d1892282d2335d5b9bc3f4656123bc18cbb2ce479def922a896a75005b3d738)
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2018/12/msg00002.html [2] https://bit.ly/2BNJvkE
I would really appreciate further feedbacks.
Giacomo _____
Hacking License ===============
Our Curiosity serves Humanity through Freedom, Candor and Communion.
This license grants you the right to hack with us, to explore ways we ignore and to challenge our assumptions by teaching us what you will learn.
1. Definitions --------------
For the purpose of this License:
- "License" refers to this License. - "Copyright" means copyright-like laws that apply to other literary works. - "Hack" refers to the software, the documentation and the contents distributed under this License. - "Hacker" refers to any Copyright holder of the Hack. - "Human" is every live being with humans among its genetic ancestors. - "Application" refers to a set of software exchanging data. - "Runtime" refers to any runtime system, any operating system, any virtual machine and/or any interpreter that is required to run the Hack. - "Source" refers to the human-readable form of a software which is the most convenient for people to study and modify, and that can be used to generate a new identical copy of the software itself. - "User" refers to any human receiving a copy of the Hack or its source and/or performing any action permitted by this License. - To "study" a software means to perform any activity that could help the User to deeply understand it, to understand how to modify it or to explain its usage and inner working to other Users. - To "copy" means to create an new exact copy of a software, for any purpose and on any medium, even after applying one or more lossless transformations to the software, including, but not limited to, compression or encryption. - To "distribute" means any action that enables a human to perform any of the activities permitted by this License. - To "use" a software means to generate a new copy of the software from its source, to run it for any purpose, to install it, to interact with it through any medium or proxy (even asynchronously), to provide data used for its input or to consume its output (or any part of it), and/or to store and use a Derived Work in place of the software itself. - To "wrap" a software means to integrate it into an Application. The programs that collect, store, transform and/or transfer data for the User or between the User and the Hack are called "Wrappers". Wrappers do not include any program or library that Users can find in off-the-shelf distributions of the required Runtime, but include any modified version of such programs, libraries, Runtime that are required to run the Application. The license of a Wrapper is compatible with this License if it grants to the Users access to its source and the right to study, copy, use, wrap, modify and/or distribute the Wrapper and/or the Application and/or any modified version of them, in any form. - To "modify" a software means to perform any action that would require Copyright permission, except for studying, copying, using, wrapping and distributing the software, including, but not limited to, to adapt all or part of the software, to translate all or part of it to a different language or form, to create or modify its documentation, to refactor its source, or to combine the software or parts of it with other works. The resulting work is called a "Derived Work", whereas "Inspiring Hack" is the original work modified to create it.
2. Grants ---------
Permission is hereby granted to any User of the Hack to study, copy, use, wrap, modify and/or distribute the Hack, and to distribute any Derived Work under this License but with a different name.
Furthermore, if the Hack is a Derived Work, the Hackers grant to the copyright holders of the Inspiring Hack all rights, title and interests in any copyright the Hackers have in the Hack.
Finally, a patent License to perform any of the actions permitted above is granted to any User under the Hackers' essential patent claims.
These grants are subject to the Conditions below, free of charge, non-exclusive, valid everywhere in the Universe, irrevocable (provided the stated Conditions are met), royalty-free and can be transferred to third parties with the Hack, its source or any Derived Work but for no charge.
Organizations may copy and/or distribute the Hack on behalf and under the responsibility of their members and according to this License.
This License does not grant any rights in the names, trade names, trademarks, service marks, or logos of the Hackers, except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of the Hack and reproducing the content of the copyright notice.
3. Conditions -------------
The grants provided by this License are subject to the following conditions:
1. The Hackers' copyright notice and this License shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Hack and of any Derived Work. 2. The source of the Hack shall be made available with the Hack and/or by other reasonable means to every User, according to this License and without additional constraints or requirements, such as further agreements, any royalty or other fee. 3. All Wrappers used to integrate the Hack into an Application shall be made available (either with the Hack and/or by other reasonable means) to every User under either this License or compatible ones, so that Users can modify and/or run the whole Application on their own hardware. 4. The tools, dependencies and know-how required to perform any of the activities permitted by this License shall be made available to the User with the source of the Hack (except for those tools and dependencies that are already available to every User either free of charge or in off-the-shelf distributions of the Runtime) and without additional constraints or requirements, such as further agreements, any royalty or other fee. 5. No restriction or impediment, neither technical, legal or otherwise, shall prevent, hinder or inhibit the fruition of the rights provided by this License to any User of both the Hack and any Derived Work. 6. No patent infringement litigation claim (excluding counterclaims and cross-claims) alleging that all or part of the Hack directly or indirectly infringes a patent shall be initialized by the User. 7. The User has never violated any of the previous conditions. 8. All of these conditions shall be valid and enforceable under the jurisdiction of the User.
4. Termination --------------
Failing to comply to the conditions of this License shall automatically terminate the grants provided, without affecting other parties who have received copies or rights under this License.
5. Severability ---------------
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this License does not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of this License. Such provision is to be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable.
6. No Warranty and Limitation of Liability ------------------------------------------
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
7. Use and distribution of the Hacking License ----------------------------------------------
This version of the Hacking License was written on December 03, 2018.
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed.
Copyright (C) 2018 Giacomo Tesio
Hi, thanks to the public and private advices that I received on the last version, I further improved the Hacking License.
In particular: 1. clarified the permission granted to organizations (on behalf of their members) 2. removed the name change requirement 3. extended the permissions and patent licenses granted to the Users to the copyright holders of the Inspiring Hacks 4. excluded the freely available know-how from the tools to be made available to the users (see 3.4)
Does this license match the DFSG? Would a package for my library so licensed be included in Debian? If not, why?
(these are my key concerns right now but further questions, criticisms and suggestions are still welcome!)
The canonical URI is still at http://www.tesio.it/documents/HACK.txt (SHA256: 1498d09089e420b1a441dfc516be86df88dda0f859db32178a3fb33dc4a3ed5f)
Giacomo PS: Thanks everybody for the help! _____
Hacking License ===============
Our Curiosity serves Humanity through Freedom, Candor and Communion.
This license grants you the right to hack with us, to explore ways we ignore and to challenge our assumptions by teaching us what you will learn.
1. Definitions --------------
For the purpose of this License:
- "License" refers to this License. - "Copyright" means copyright-like laws that apply to other literary works. - "Hack" refers to the software, the documentation and the contents distributed under this License. - "Hacker" refers to any Copyright holder of the Hack. - "Human" is every live being with humans among its genetic ancestors. - "Application" refers to a set of software exchanging data. - "Runtime" refers to any runtime system, any operating system, any virtual machine and/or any interpreter that is required to run the Hack. - "Source" refers to the human-readable form of a software which is the most convenient for people to study and modify, and that can be used to generate a new identical copy of the software itself. - "User" refers to any human receiving a copy of the Hack or its source and/or performing any action permitted by this License. - To "study" a software means to perform any activity that could help the User to deeply understand it, to understand how to modify it or to explain its usage and inner working to other Users. - To "copy" means to create an new exact copy of a work, for any purpose and on any medium, even after applying any lossless transformation to it, including, but not limited to, compression or encryption. - To "convey" means to perform any action that might enable other humans to copy a work and/or to obtain or receive copies of it. - To "distribute" means any action that enables any other human to perform any of the activities permitted by this License. - To "use" a software means to generate a new copy of the software from its source, to run it for any purpose, to install it, to interact with it through any medium or proxy (even asynchronously), to provide data used for its input or to consume its output (or any part of it), and/or to store and use a Derived Work in place of the software itself. - To "wrap" a software means to integrate it into an Application. The programs that collect, store, transform and/or transfer data for the User or between the User and the Hack are called "Wrappers". Wrappers do not include any program or library that Users can find in off-the-shelf distributions of the required Runtime, but include any modified version of such programs, libraries, Runtime that are required to run the Application. The license of a Wrapper is compatible with this License if it grants to the Users access to its source and the right to study, copy, use, wrap, modify and/or distribute the Wrapper and/or the Application and/or any modified version of them, in any form. - To "modify" a software means to perform any action that would require Copyright permission, except for studying, copying, using, wrapping and distributing the software, including, but not limited to, to adapt all or part of the software, to translate all or part of it to a different language or form, to create or modify its documentation, to refactor its source, or to combine the software or parts of it with other works. The resulting work is called a "Derived Work", whereas "Inspiring Hacks" are the original works modified to create it.
2. Grants ---------
Permission is hereby granted to any User of the Hack to study, copy, use, wrap, modify and/or distribute the Hack, and to distribute any Derived Work under this License but clearly informing recipients about the differences with the Hack.
A patent License to perform each and every of the actions permitted above is granted to any User under the Hackers' essential patent claims.
If the Hack is a Derived Work, the Hackers grant to the copyright holders of the Inspiring Hacks all permissions and patent Licenses granted to the Users of the Hack, and all rights, title and interests in any copyright the Hackers have in the Hack to the extent permitted by Law.
All of these grants are subject to the Conditions below, free of charge, non-exclusive, valid everywhere in the Universe, irrevocable (provided the stated Conditions are met), royalty-free and can be transferred to third parties with the Hack, its source or any Derived Work for no charge.
Organizations may copy and/or convey the Hack on behalf of their members and under this License. No other permission is granted to organizations.
This License does not grant any rights in the names, trade names, trademarks, service marks, or logos of the Hackers, except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of the Hack and reproducing the content of the copyright notice.
3. Conditions -------------
The grants provided by this License are subject to the following conditions:
1. The Hackers' copyright notice and this License shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Hack and of any Derived Work. 2. The source of the Hack shall be made available with the Hack and/or by other reasonable means to every User, according to this License and without additional constraints or requirements, such as further agreements, royalties or other fee. 3. All Wrappers used to integrate the Hack into an Application shall be made available (either with the Hack and/or by other reasonable means) to every User under either this License or compatible ones, so that Users can modify and/or run the whole Application on their own hardware. 4. The tools, dependencies and know-how required to perform any of the activities permitted by this License shall be made available to the User with the source of the Hack (except for the tools, dependencies and know-how that are already available to every User either free of charge or in off-the-shelf distributions of the Runtime) and without additional constraints or requirements, such as further agreements, any royalty or other fee. 5. No restriction or impediment, neither technical, legal or otherwise, shall prevent, hinder or inhibit the fruition of the rights provided by this License to any User of both the Hack and any Derived Work. 6. No patent infringement litigation claim (excluding counterclaims and cross-claims) alleging that all or part of the Hack directly or indirectly infringes a patent shall be initialized by the User. 7. The User has never violated any of the previous conditions. 8. All of the Definitions, the Grants and the Conditions of this License shall be valid and enforceable under the jurisdiction of the User.
4. Termination --------------
Failing to comply to the conditions of this License shall automatically terminate the grants provided, without affecting other parties who have received copies, permissions or rights under this License.
5. Severability ---------------
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this License does not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of this License. Such provision is to be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable.
6. No Warranty and Limitation of Liability ------------------------------------------
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
7. Use and distribution of the Hacking License ----------------------------------------------
This version of the Hacking License was written on December 05, 2018.
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed.
Copyright (C) 2018 Giacomo Tesio
copyleft-next@lists.fedorahosted.org
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Giacomo Tesio