DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE

[David Labsky]

Hello Fedora Legal,

Would software under the following license be okay for inclusion in Fedora?  Should I pursue the author to relicence?
>                  DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE*
>
> TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
> You can do whatever you want to with the work.
> You cannot stop anybody from doing whatever they want to with the work.
> You cannot revoke anybody elses DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE in the work.
>
> This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to
> the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it
> and/or modify it under the terms of the DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE
>
> Software originally created by Justin Lloyd @ http://otakunozoku.com/

Source: https://github.com/rednex/rgbds/blob/master/LICENSE

Thank you
Sanqui

[Tom Callaway]

On 02/27/2017 10:58 AM, David Labsky wrote:
> Hello Fedora Legal,
>
> Would software under the following license be okay for inclusion in Fedora?  Should I pursue the author to relicence?
> >                  DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE*
> >
> > TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
> > You can do whatever you want to with the work.
> > You cannot stop anybody from doing whatever they want to with the work.
> > You cannot revoke anybody elses DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE in the work.
> >
> > This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to
> > the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it
> > and/or modify it under the terms of the DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE

Clause 2 seems like it conflicts with clauses 0 and 1. Sublicensing
should fall under "whatever you want".

Additionally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I'm not sure that
"do whatever you want to do" has an established legal definition. That
said, we do permit the WTFPL, which has a similarly poorly worded
clause, but it does not have the conflict I point out above.

Richard, setting aside the concept of "please stop writing your own
ultra permissive licenses", what do you think?

~tom

==
Red Hat

[Richard Fontana]

On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 11:50:26AM -0500, Tom Callaway wrote:
> On 02/27/2017 10:58 AM, David Labsky wrote:
> > Hello Fedora Legal,
> >
> > Would software under the following license be okay for inclusion in Fedora?  Should I pursue the author to relicence?
> > >                  DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE*
> > >
> > > TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
> > > You can do whatever you want to with the work.
> > > You cannot stop anybody from doing whatever they want to with the work.
> > > You cannot revoke anybody elses DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE in the work.
> > >
> > > This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to
> > > the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it
> > > and/or modify it under the terms of the DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE
>
> Clause 2 seems like it conflicts with clauses 0 and 1. Sublicensing
> should fall under "whatever you want".
>
> Additionally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I'm not sure that
> "do whatever you want to do" has an established legal definition. That
> said, we do permit the WTFPL, which has a similarly poorly worded
> clause, but it does not have the conflict I point out above.
>
> Richard, setting aside the concept of "please stop writing your own
> ultra permissive licenses", what do you think?

I see this as a badly drafted attempt to have a simple copyleft
license that no one except the original copyright holder can enforce
(which might mean it isn't really copyleft I guess).

Nevertheless from a Fedora perspective I think it should be considered
a free software, GPL-incompatible license.

Richard

[Tom Callaway]

On 02/28/2017 07:28 AM, Richard Fontana wrote:
> Nevertheless from a Fedora perspective I think it should be considered
> a free software, GPL-incompatible license.

Added to the Good Licenses list, use shortname "DWPL".

~tom

==
Red Hat

[Sanqui (David Labský)]

This is good news (even if the license is goofy).  Thanks for the quick turnaround!

Have a nice day
Sanqui

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Callaway" 
To: "Richard Fontana" 
Cc: [e-mail], "David Labsky" 
Sent: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 9:23:00 PM
Subject: [Fedora-legal-list] Re: DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE

On 02/28/2017 07:28 AM, Richard Fontana wrote:
> Nevertheless from a Fedora perspective I think it should be considered
> a free software, GPL-incompatible license.

Added to the Good Licenses list, use shortname "DWPL".

~tom

==
Red Hat
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[Peter Lemenkov]

#1 contradicts to #0. "Do whatever you want" in my understanding means
I can relicense it. However #1 tells me that I actually cannot
relicense it to some other licenses. Also I don't get what's the
status of the derived works? Does this license means I can do whatever
I want only with this particular source code ("work") or with any
other derived works?

I'd ask author(s) to consider CC0.

2017-02-27 16:58 GMT+01:00 David Labsky :
> Hello Fedora Legal,
>
> Would software under the following license be okay for inclusion in Fedora?  Should I pursue the author to relicence?
> >                  DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE*
> >
> > TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
> > You can do whatever you want to with the work.
> > You cannot stop anybody from doing whatever they want to with the work.
> > You cannot revoke anybody elses DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE in the work.
> >
> > This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to
> > the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it
> > and/or modify it under the terms of the DO WHATEVER PUBLIC LICENSE
> >
> > Software originally created by Justin Lloyd @ http://otakunozoku.com/
>
> Source: https://github.com/rednex/rgbds/blob/master/LICENSE
>
> Thank you
> Sanqui
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