From: Tom "spot" Callaway <tcallawa(a)redhat.com>
Subject: Re: [Fedora-legal-list] re-packaging iText
To: orcanbahri(a)yahoo.com
Cc: fedora-legal-list(a)redhat.com
Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 8:03 AM
On Tue, 2008-09-30 at 21:57 -0700, Orcan Ogetbil wrote:
> Hi, I wanted to bring into attention the recent
development in the licensing of the iText. This software was
included in Fedora in the past but then removed due to
licensing trouble:
> (i)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=176981
> and especially
> (ii)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=236309
>
> According to the second link it was removed from F-7
because of the fact that it contained some Sun-licensed
files.
>
> I downloaded the software from its current website:
>
http://www.lowagie.com/iText/download.html
>
> The website claims a dual MPLv1.1 / LGPL license.
Inside the package there is a text file
(core/com/lowagie/text/misc_licenses.txt), which I will
paste to the bottom of this email.
>
> The most relevant parts of this txt file are in
section (3). The original license ended with the sentence:
"You acknowledge that Software is not designed,
licensed or intended for use in the design, construction,
operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility." The
word "licensed" caused the trouble in the past
(see comment#2 in (ii)) as it made the software non-free.
But according to the txt file there has been some email
traffic between the original developer and iText developer
on January 23, 2008 and the word "licensed" has
been removed from that sentence in the final license.
>
> I think we can re-consider packaging this software. I
want to make sure we are on solid grounds.
>
> Please post your opinions.
Show me a package, and I'll audit it.
~spot
The package is in bugzilla now. Any feedback will be appreciated.