On Sunday 12 June 2005 16:12, Alan Dayley wrote:
> Technomage wrote:
> > this took some digging on their site ti find, but it is there and it
> > pertains to Suse 9.3 pro. (and all derivatives therein):
> >
> > *********************************************
> >
> > OWNERSHIP RIGHTS
> >
> > No title to or ownership of the Software is transferred to You. Novell
> > and/or its licensors owns and retains all title and ownership of all
> > intellectual property rights in the Software, including any
> > adaptations or copies. You acquire only a license to use the Software.
> >
> > Novell reserves all rights not expressly granted to You. You may not:
> > (1) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software except
> > and only to the extent it is expressly permitted by applicable law or
> > the license terms accompanying a component of the Software; or (2)
> > transfer the Software or Your license rights under this Agreement, in
> > whole or in part.
> >
> > THE SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE SOLD, TRANSFERRED, OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT
> > PRIOR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION FROM NOVELL.
> >
> > *******************************************
>
> Obviously the above restrictions cannot apply to code under GPL or
> other Free licenses.  Novell would not be so ignorant as to apply
> said restrictions to the entire 9.3 distro.  Since you did not
> provide the URL of the source, I can only speculate that such
> restrictions would apply to any non-Free components in the distro or
> perhaps only to the "enterprise" offerings that are not available
> for download.  I base such speculation on the following:

I hate to say this, but they did. its in the 9.3 EULA Click through 
agreement. :(


>
> - Novell is not ignorant of the licenses of the software they
> distribute, as I stated above.
> - The download mirror list page
> (http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/ftp/int_mirrors
>.html) has an invitation saying "If you are regularly mirroring
> ftp.suse.com and are not listed here, please drop a note to
> webmaster@suse.de."  This looks like an invitation to be listed not
> to be sued.
> - The above download mirror list page has many educational
> institutions and well known mirror sites (U of Colorado at Boulder,
> Sunsite, Oregon State, U of Utah).  If Novell doesn't want it
> mirrored, why allow such sites to do so?
> - The mirror policy (ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/README.mirror-policy)
> states "... we are grateful for offers to mirror our directories on
> publically available servers for the non-commercial purpose of
> providing download service." in it's first paragraph.
>
> So, while the above license section you have quoted is indeed quite
> restrictive, I believe your are incorrect that it applies to "Suse
> 9.3 pro. (and all derivatives therein)"  It must apply to something
> else.
>
That was specifically found in their 9.3 installer agreement page (located on 
the 9.3 distro disc dvd.).

I think it may be ime to take novel to task on this. the EULA sounds a lot 
more like one authored for UNIX or Netware than a linux distribution.
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