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Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] Windows installer bug: Users shouldn't have to accept GNU

From: Shawn Willden <shawn-wireshark@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 23:03:31 -0600
On Friday 22 September 2006 03:23, Jaap Keuter wrote:
> On another note, the License also speeks about warranty in clauses 11 en
> 12. I don't mind the person installing agreeing to that.

I submitted an Ask Slashdot question about the use of the GPL as a click-wrap 
agreement, and one of the comments there pointed out how the FSF recommends 
this issue be addressed.

At http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html#SEC4 there's a "How to Apply These 
Terms to Your New Programs" guide.  It suggests that software display a 
notice similar to this one:

"Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
type `show w'.  This is free software, and you are welcome
to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' 
for details."

This is short and simple enough that users will read it -- in fact it's much 
more likely that they'll understand it is Free Software than if they're 
required to read the GPL text -- it makes clear that there is no warranty, 
and it provides instructions on how to get more information.  Obviously, the 
nature of the instructions would have to change for wireshark.

Another poster on slashdot mentioned that some other GPL packages have also 
taken the approach of replacing the "I Accept" and "Cancel" buttons with a 
single button that says "Cool!", or "Great!".

I think the combination of these two ideas is excellent, and addresses all of 
my concerns.

If there's a consensus that an installer that follows such an approach would 
be accepted, I'll be happy to implement the changes and provide a patch.

Thanks,

	Shawn.

P.S. For anyone who is interested, the slashdot discussion is at 
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/14/232217