in this post, i rant about licensing

Dec 21, 2008, 20:02 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Tom Callaway)

"But, lets look at afio. The original version of this code was written in 1985 by Mark Brukhartz, while he was at Lachman Associates. Here is the license for the original afio code:

* Copyright (c) 1985 Lachman Associates, Inc..
*
* This software was written by Mark Brukhartz at Lachman Associates,
* Inc.. It may be distributed within the following restrictions:
* (1) It may not be sold at a profit.
* (2) This credit and notice must remain intact.
* This software may be distributed with other software by a commercial
* vendor, provided that it is included at no additional charge."

Okay. Now, realize that all afio changes from 1985 on are derived works from code under that license. There is no "clean afio", the very first implementation (that anyone knows of) is under these terms.

Now, this license isn't free. Why? The restriction for selling the code "at a profit" is against the FSF's definition of Free:"

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