"Larson, Timothy E." <TELarson%west.com@localhost> writes:
> These two flags seem to indicate that no charge can be made for
> distribution. Does this mean no charge at all, or no charge beyond
> cost of that distribution itself (i.e. no profit)?
They don't really mean exactly that; unfortunately it's a bit more
complicated.
The NO_*_ON_* variables are part legacy from before LICENSE=, and part
to help those distributing distfiles/binaries on ftp (internet, no
charge) and cdrom (charge, more or less by definition). There has
generally been the notion that putting something on a cdrom covers the
case where it is sold at cost (or given away, probably) and also the
case there the seller charges enough to make some money, with the notion
that we're talking about providing a distribution service, not about
charging license fees for software. I don't recall seeing licenses that
permit some profit for distribution but set limits.
See section 19.1.5 of the pkgsrc guide (pkgsrc/doc/pkgsrc.txt).
So how it really works is
LICENSE= points to the license.
If ${LICENSE} is a Free/Open license, then none of NO_*_ON_* are set,
more or less by definition of Free/Open.
If there are reasons why distribution would not be permitted by the
LICENSE (including lack of a clear license), then RESTRICTED= is set
to be a short summary of the situation, and:
Each NO_*_ON_* is set to ${RESTRICTED} if ${LICENSE} does not grant
permission for each of the 4 distribution styles.
Subject to the above being the plan and there being errors, of course.
So it's true that a LICENSE that says "you can distribute without
charging copies of the distfile, and binaries compiled from them" leads
to RESTRICTED= and NO_*_ON_CDROM, you can't reason from NO_*_ON_CDROM
that the license has anything to do with charging. There are packages
that prohibit redistribution entirely, and those have all 4 set.
Generally, if it's iffy we set the flags, causing people relying on them
to err on the side of caution.
Basically, the flags are part of pkgsrc to make it friendlier for people
who want to sell CDs or run an ftp mirror to only include packages for
which the license permits that kind of distribution.
Is your question
I want to sell CDs. What do I have to do? (Answer: see your lawyer.)
or
I have a new package. How do I set the flag? (Answer: send a pointer
to the license and we'll argue about it. :-)
or
I think flags are wrong for package X. (Please point it out and why.)
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