Re: Possibly Non-Free Add-ons in the Free Addon(s) List

[dotcommon]

Il giorno ven, 20/03/2009 alle 18.31 -0400, Ali Gunduz ha scritto:
> I think the DownThemAll! addon in the IceCat addon list may not be
> free despite its free license. Upon installation and restarting of
> IceCat, the addon forces a license agreement window (you can find the
> text of user agreement window atteched) with "Accept" and "Decline"
> options. 

I think this windows is basically a way to inform users about the
'Privacy Notice'  ...  more than a license agreement or EULA...

> Declining the agreement pops a warning of "Declining will
> cause DownThemAll! to be uninstalled. Continue?" and, if you proceed,
> the addon gets uninstalled. 

This warning seems more to be a license agreement implicitly related to
the GPL (it can not be related to the privacy notice because a notice
not is a license to accept or not...).

Now, the GPL does not require to be explicitly accepted but (I think)
neither does not allow such a "agreement window". 

On the other hand, if you do not agree with the license (does not matter
which license) you should not install and use the software.

So... I think this behaviour might be considered acceptable.

> [WARNING: When I proceeded with the
> uninstallation after the warning, the IceCat crashed with no session
> history saved. Be aware of this if you plan to recreate this
> situation.]

Uhm... I cannot say anything about it... I have accepted the
installation since the first warning...

> I suspect that this "agreement requirement" may prevent the addon from
> being free although the context of the agreement doesn't impose any
> extra restrictions.

My opinion is that the addon may be considered free (see above). Anyway,
but I am not a lawyer nor a GPL expert... and I agree that this
situation may be uncertain...

> If this is the case, then there needs to be an additional testing
> procedure of the screening for the free addon list.

Maybe... What is your idea?

alexus
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