[Fedora-legal-list] Exceptions restricting program name are compatible with "LGPLv2 with exceptions", correct?

[Tom Callaway]

On 12/03/2013 07:37 AM, Jeff Backus wrote:
> Hi Tom,
> 
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Tom Callaway <tcallawa at redhat.com
> <mailto:tcallawa at redhat.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     I don't think so. The email quoted from Tuomo is two years older than
>     the repost, so it is unlikely that it is in the context of Notion (also,
>     he never mentions Notion in it). I'm guessing he sent it out to the Ion
>     mailing list independently of Notion's existence (possibly before Notion
>     came about? not sure on the timeline), but we cannot assume it implies
>     acceptability of the Notion name.
> 
>     Really, someone needs to ask politely. :)
> 
> 
> So handwavey isn't preferred in legal realms? :)
> 
> I spoke with upstream. They provided some interesting background but
> nothing explicit. They did think it was worthwhile to contact Tuomo for
> clarification. Their comments made me think he may be willing to
> consider a vanilla LGPL.
> 
> Since Tuomo is busy and has indicated in the past that he isn't
> interested in dealing with Ion-related topics, I'd like to minimize the
> amount of his time that I have to take up. So to be clear, what is
> required to sufficient proof of his consent to change licenses and/or at
> least bless the Notion project? Is a simple e-mail enough? Is a PGP/GPG
> signature required? I was thinking of asking Tuomo to:
> ... grant permission to the Notion project to distribute any and all
> Ion(tm)-related material, including but not limited to primary and
> ancillary code and documentation, under the official LGPL version 2.1 as
> specified at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html
> 
> And if he doesn't agree to the above, to at least:
> ... agree that the Notion name is sufficiently different from the
> Ion(tm) name as to be in compliance with the Ion(tm) license.
> 
> Are these sufficient? Are there other loose ends I should try to tie up?
> 
> I apologize if I'm belaboring the point - I don't really "have a
> setting" between handwavey and pedantic. :)

Email that comes from an address that is "known" to be Tuomo is
sufficient, GPG sig is nice to have but not necessary. Either of those
two options will suffice here, the first is preferred because it will
resolve the license issue entirely, while the second will still require
us to consider whether the Ion license (in the Notion context) is Free.

~tom

==
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