Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 01:05:37 -0500
From: Brian Ristuccia <brianr@debian.org>
To: tictoc@aol.net
Subject: Debian wants to include AOL TiK client with Debian GNU/Linux

I'm hoping you can help me out a bit with regards to your TiK AOL Instant
Messanger client software.  I'm a volunteer for Debian, an organization that
produces a free GNU/Linux distribution. As part of my work for Debian, I
package software that I find useful for inclusion in their distribution.

If you're interested in having your software included with Debian Linux,
perhaps we could work together in order to make this happen. While I was
looking at your web site at http://www.aim.aol.com/tik/, I downloaded the
TiK client software, and noticed a few issues with the license agreement
that might make it difficult or impossible for Debian to include your
software with out distribution.

For your reference, what we can distribute with the main part of Debian
Linux is defined by the Debian Free Software Guidelines, available at
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines . Software in main is
available from all Debian mirror sites, and is also distributed on Official
Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM disks.

The TiK license looks a lot like the standard BSD / XFree86 non-Copyleft
Free Software license, except for two minor issues. First, clause ii) places
a restriction on how the software can be used. Second, another section near
the end makes some additional prohibitions on use by saying the software can
not be used to operate a nuclear facility or for aircraft control, air
traffic, aircraft navigation or aircraft communications. While this section
is of little consequence to anyone because it is probably impossible for
someone to use TiK for any of these purposes, this restriction violates our
guideline #6 (No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor) and may prevent
us from distributing the software.

To help resolve these issues, clause ii) could be removed or be rephrased to
restrict only the use of AOL's trademark and online service. Since these
restrictions are already implicit in the AOL Instant Messanger service
agreement, perhaps this term could be removed altogether. The
fields-of-endeavour clause could be rephrased to "Licensee represents and
warrants that it understands such use is strongly disrecommended and at
their own peril." Since the restricted uses are very unlikely and perhaps in
some cases impossible, and since the very acceptable standard liability
clause more than covers AOL legally, perhaps this clause could also be
omitted completely.  With these changes, I feel this license would be free
and acceptable, and that we could include TiK with Debian GNU/Linux.

My questions are, 1. what changes (if any) would AOL be willing to make to
help this license comply with our Debian Free Software Guidelines, and 2.
What other changes would the debian-legal folks recommend instead of or in
additon to the ones I've mentioned above.

For the reference of the debian-legal folks, here is the TiK license. 

# Copyright (c) 1998 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
#
# AOL grants you ("Licensee") a non-exclusive, royalty free, license to use,
# modify and redistribute this software in source and binary code form,
# provided that i) this copyright notice and license appear on all copies of
# the software; and ii) Licensee does not utilize the software in a manner
# which is disparaging to AOL.
#
# This software is provided "AS IS," without a warranty of any kind. ALL
# EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY
# IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR
# NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED. AOL AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE
# LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING
# OR DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DERIVATIVES. IN NO EVENT WILL AOL OR ITS
# LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT,
# INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, HOWEVER
# CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF
# OR INABILITY TO USE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF AOL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
# POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
#
# This software is not designed or intended for use in on-line control of
# aircraft, air traffic, aircraft navigation or aircraft communications; or in
# the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear
# facility. Licensee represents and warrants that it will not use or
# redistribute the Software for such purposes.

I hope this will be the start of a dialog that will resolve the licensing
issues with AOL's TiK instant messanger client, and enable us to include it
as a part of Debian GNU/Linux.

Thank you. 

-- 
Brian Ristuccia
brianr@debian.org
bristucc@nortelnetworks.com
bristucc@cs.uml.edu


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