[gentoo-dev] Re: [RFC] Adding potentially questionable license AcePerl-Indemnity

[Alec Warner]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 3:33 PM Kent Fredric <kentnl@g.o> wrote:

> I've just discovered dev-perl/Ace has some fun questionable licensing
> which includes a lovely indemnity clause, which had previously gone
> unnoticed, and it stipulates additional requests for research
> publications, which is not something mentioned in any license currently
> in tree other than Tinker
>
> Following is the entire body of the license I plan to put in
> licenses/AcePerl-Indemnity ( name chosen to specifically alert people
> tempted to accept this license that Indemnification is an important
> part they should actually read )
>
> Current advice also says that due to the terms of this license, we have
> to RESTRICT="mirror" this as well, unless the Trustees want to sign off
> on potentially indemnifying CSHL
>

I think it's less about the Foundation (I'm happy to indemnify them) but
the indemnification reads as viral to me and so anyone that operated a
distfiles mirror would also implicitly indemnify[0] (through mirroring from
us) and it seems unlikely this is a thing we would encourage because our
distfiles operators are relying on some diligence on our own end to avoid
excessive liability for files we provide to them.

-A

[0] Whether this would hold up is another matter, but I'm fine with
restricting the mirroring of aceperl to avoid this complication.



>
> Also following up with CPAN because as its *currently* mirrored on
> CPAN, and has been mirrored there for at *least* 12 years, its
> potentially in a legal situation as well.
>
> ( But that's the fault of the uploader if true, because you can't
> upload anything to CPAN without mirroring being something you didn't
> expect )
>
> Once this license is added, the plan is to rework Ace-*.ebuild to be under
>
> LICENSE="|| ( Artistic GPL-1+ ) AcePerl-Indemnity"
>
> Upstream: https://metacpan.org/source/LDS/AcePerl-1.92/DISCLAIMER.txt
>
> Text Body:
>
> ==============
>
> The Ace.pm package and all associated files are Copyright (c) 1998
> Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
>
> This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> it under the same terms as Perl itself.  See the Artistic License file
> in the main Perl distribution for specific terms and conditions of
> use.  In addition, the following disclaimers apply:
>
> CSHL makes no representations whatsoever as to the SOFTWARE contained
> herein.  It is experimental in nature and is provided WITHOUT WARRANTY
> OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR ANY OTHER
> WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.  CSHL MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR
> WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENT OR
> OTHER PROPRIETARY RIGHT.
>
> By downloading this SOFTWARE, your Institution hereby indemnifies CSHL
> against any loss, claim, damage or liability, of whatsoever kind or
> nature, which may arise from your Institution's respective use,
> handling or storage of the SOFTWARE.
>
> If publications result from research using this SOFTWARE, we ask that
> CSHL be acknowledged and/or credit be given to CSHL scientists, as
> scientifically appropriate.
>
> ==============
>
>