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Reporting if a license is closed-source compatible

Read How LIDESC detects and reports licensing conflicts for an overview and web-based demonstration. This page describes how to use the command line utility to perform a specific test.

Although there is no established definition of "closed-source compatible," for combination purposes here, a license is "closed-source compatible" if

: 1. the developer is never required to disclose source.; 2. the developer can require a fee is paid for every redistribution.; 3. the developer is not compelled to grant patents or different license terms to anyone.

CAUTION: license compatibility reports are only as good as the description files created by human interpretation of license texts. You should obtain them from trusted suppliers, and be careful when creating them yourself. If a symbol list for a license is empty or incomplete, it is not possible to accurately report incompatibility.

The command line to check for consistency with this definition of closed-source is:

	lidesc [-d {license-dir}] combine closed.txt license.txt

{license-dir} is the optionally provided location of license description files. By default it is '.' license.txt is the name of the license text file to test.

Example output:

CONFLICT: License closed.txt with TAG librock_SRC_0 cannot be combined with gpl.txt
CONFLICT: License closed.txt with TAG librock_FEE_1 cannot be combined with gpl.txt
CONFLICT: License closed.txt with TAG librock_DERIV_0 cannot be combined with gpl.txt
CONFLICT: License closed.txt with TAG librock_MSRC_0 cannot be combined with gpl.txt
CONFLICT: License gpl.txt with TAG librock_SRC_1C_WITHBIN cannot be combined with closed.txt
CONFLICT: License gpl.txt with TAG librock_MSRC_1C_WITHBIN cannot be combined with closed.txt

WARNING: It is folly to assume that a simple program like this can do anything more than find and report some of the biggest problems, while leaving others undetected. This system does not match the educated human intelligence required to interpret and apply licenses. On the other hand, it can be useful to identify some of the license clauses which deserve extra scrutiny.

Up to: Reporting when incompatible licenses are used
Up to: LIDESC User Documentation

Librock LIDESC. Software License Analyzer and Compatibility Reporter
Copyright 2001-2002, Forrest J. Cavalier III, Mib Software
You may reproduce verbatim copies of this page, but changing it is not allowed.
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