[Fedora-legal-list] Waqf license for Fedora.

[Richard Fontana]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 05:10:40PM +0300, Tareq Al Jurf wrote:
>    Can we add the following license to Fedora? I mean that it would become
>    acceptable for packages.
>    I was told that I should write the reasons to use it instead of an
>    existing one. I think that this could show the variety of cultures that
>    make Fedora the best.
>    Link to license:�[1]http://www.ojuba.org/wiki/_export/raw/waqf/license

Assuming the translation is reasonably accurate, the license is not a
free software license, and therefore is not acceptable for Fedora.
The principal problem is the section that says:

  The user may use the work for any good purpose and he may not use it
  to harm others or violate the permissive principles of Islam
  . . . . Notice that any work that is most likely harmful can't be
  put under Waqf in the first place.

This imposes use restrictions based on moral or religious
criteria. Licenses containing similar requirements have been rejected
by Fedora: see, e.g., the JSON.org license
(http://www.json.org/license.html), and the HESSLA
(http://www.hacktivismo.com/about/hessla.php).
See also: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/hessla.html


- RF