On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 10:36:43PM +0100, Johnny Solbu wrote:
> On Tuesday 28 February 2012 22:13, Zachary Uram wrote:
> > Commercial use is fine as long as you follow the license terms 
> > so it shouldn't have to go under non-free.
> 
> And the license (copyright.h) explicitly says it can't be used
> commercially. :-)=

No, the license gives permissions.
It doesn't say what can't be done.

copyright.h of both the netrek-server-vanilla and netrek-client-cow
says, in part ...

"Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation."

> The license is a BSD-like license, with one exception, it has a
> "without fee" clause, which is a no commercial clause.

I agree it has a "without fee" wording.

> That single clause makes it a Non-free program, and force us to have
> it in the non-free section.

If that is your policy, then that is your problem.  ;-)

> So to rephrase my question:
> Is there any plans to attempt to remove the "and without fee", thus
> making the client and server Free Software?
> If you did, I believe it would also end up in Debian and gNewSense.

There are no plans to attempt to remove the "and without fee", because
not all of the original authors are contactable.

Please also package gytha, a Netrek client which is GPL.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/