1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
|
<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 -->
<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
<!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays licensing non-cpleft" -->
<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
<title>The Motif License - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/motif.translist" -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" -->
<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
<div class="article reduced-width">
<h2>The Motif License</h2>
<address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
Stallman</a></address>
<p>
A couple of weeks ago, the Open Group changed the license of Motif,
inviting free software developers to use it. However, the new Motif
license does not fit either the definition of free software, or the
looser definition of open source software.</p>
<p>
Their announcement says they have released Motif to “the open
source community,” but this is true only in an unnatural
interpretation of the words. They have not made Motif available
within the free software community; instead, they have invited the
people in the free software community to leave the community by using
Motif.</p>
<p>
I've written to the Open Group about this, asking them to change the
license. We can hope they will, but we can't assume it. In the
present circumstances, we have to treat Motif the same way we treated
it before: not available for us. Motif still cannot be part of a free
operating system, and combining or linking someone else's GPL-covered
code with Motif is still a violation of the GPL except in very special
circumstances.</p>
<p>
Fortunately there is a free software alternative to Motif, called
LessTif. Most programs that were written for Motif can use LessTif
with no changes. Please support the free software community by using
LessTif rather than Motif. Some finishing work still needs to be done
on LessTif; to volunteer, contact <a href="mailto:lesstif@hungry.com">
<lesstif@hungry.com></a>.</p>
<p>
Here are some of the problems of the Motif license:</p>
<ul>
<li>It claims that you accept the license merely by
“using” Motif. Only a shrink-wrap license or
something similar can do that, and shrink-wrap licenses are a
bad thing.
</li>
<li>The license is restricted to use on certain operating systems,
those which fit a category they call “open source.”
Both the free software movement and the open source camp
consider use restrictions unacceptable.
</li>
<li>Their definition of the term “open source” is very
different from the one used by the open source camp, thus
causing confusion.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
In the free software movement, we disagree with the philosophy and
values of open source. (For more explanation, see
<a href="/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html">open-source-misses-the-point.html</a>.)
But even though we do not support open source or advocate what it
stands for, we think people should not misrepresent what it stands
for. The facts of the situation are complex enough; confusing the
issue is not welcome.</p>
<h3 id="LaterNote" class="footnote">Later Note</h3>
<p>
<em>In 2012, <a href="https://motif.ics.com/">
Motif</a> was released under the GNU Lesser General Public
License, version 2.1.</em></p>
</div>
</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
<div class="unprintable">
<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a
href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a
href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other
corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a
href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
replace it with the translation of these two:
We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
<web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p>
<p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
our web pages, see <a
href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
README</a>. -->
Please see the <a
href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for
information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p>
</div>
<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
document was modified, or published.
If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
<p>Copyright © 1997-1999, 2013, 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
<p class="unprintable">Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
$Date: 2021/10/01 17:02:54 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
</body>
</html>
|
