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syl20bnr / spacemacs

A community-driven Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and* Vim!
http://spacemacs.org
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Proposal to improve GPL compliance #14444

Closed gnusupport closed 3 years ago

gnusupport commented 3 years ago

After reading the GPL, and reviewing Spacemacs, I am of the opinion that Spacemacs is not merely an aggregate, it is one full work that includes various other parts. It does not matter if parts come from various places, the whole package is there.

Review: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AggregateContainers

I am proposing that authors review the section 5. about Conveying Modified Source Versions, and to see if there is need to comply to it. As it is actually a distribution of Emacs in modified form IMHO. I have not found copy of license inside. I found the reference, but the reference like GPLv3 is not enough to comply to licensing.

Please review:

    a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified
    it, and giving a relevant date.

    b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is
    released under this License and any conditions added under section
    7.  This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to
    "keep intact all notices".

    c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this
    License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy.  This
    License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7
    additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts,
    regardless of how they are packaged.  This License gives no
    permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not
    invalidate such permission if you have separately received it.

    d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
    Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
    interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your
    work need not make them do so.
syl20bnr commented 3 years ago

I just merged the PR and did not see @CrazyPython's comment.

I will think a about it. Maybe some short text below the GPLv3 free software logo. Proudly free software or something like that.

syl20bnr commented 3 years ago

@CrazyPython I added "Proudly free software" to the footer:

image
gnusupport commented 3 years ago

Licensing is just fine, as it is indicating more legal term then "respect for freedom".

From GPL:

An interactive user interface displays "Appropriate Legal Notices" to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2) tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License. If the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion.

As you see there are 2 important facts, that is the (1) copyright notice, which is related to word and meaning of "Licensing" and (2) that people can read in the license that there is no warranty.

All GPL3 software is thus respecting users freedom.

gnusupport commented 3 years ago

That is excellent!

Now all participant from the proposal side are invited to promote Spacemacs on any of their social networks or websites.

CrazyPython commented 3 years ago

Nice!

Can we have "free software" in "Proudly free software" link to the free software definition? To introduce people who have heard of free software before.

syl20bnr commented 3 years ago

Good idea, we can certainly make it a link.

syl20bnr commented 3 years ago

Added:

image

I'm pretty happy about the result, let's close this issue if everything is now as it should be.

gnusupport commented 3 years ago

That is great, thank you for helping people get aware of free software.

robbyoconnor commented 3 years ago

@gnusupport you do realize literally anyone can change things -- People can customize all aspects of Emacs. Classic Emacs doesn't mean anything. Emacs has tons of knobs one can tune.

gnusupport commented 3 years ago

Definitely, that is what I encourage people to do.

Subject of the issue was not changing and adapting in itself, rather licensing and thus promoting free software that more changes, adaptations and contributions may take place.

I strongly suggest that you read about GPL licenses to understand the purpose of it.