[sword-devel] Notice about software cost (was: Re: Notice in licence agreement )

[Jonathan Marsden]

Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:

> "Would it be good idea to put a notice with licence agreement in each
> frontend which says that "this software can be obtained with no cost, if
> you have paid a large sum you may have been fooled"?"

The idea is good.  Putting it "with the licence agreement" or "in
license agreement" as you seem to be suggesting may be a problem -- that
could lead to the notice being understood by naive readers to be a part
*of* that licence agreement.  Modifying the GPL is expressly disallowed,
of course, but naive readers do not necessarily know that.

So I'd say yes, adding a notice to this effect is IMO a good idea.  But,
please be very careful to do so in a way that does not make it look as
though this statement is in any way a part of, or a modification to, the
license agreement.  A separate tab in the Help -> About dialog, titled
"Payment", or "Cost", or something like that, maybe?

I think providing readers with some positive action that they can take
if they feel they have been deceived is a good thing to include in this
kind of notice.

If it helps, I seem to remember having seen software (I'm not sure
whether it was GPLed though) with notices that said something like:

"This software can be obtained at no cost, and can be freely copied.  If
you paid a large amount for it you have probably been deceived.  In that
case, please (a) let us know in an email to <example at example.com>,
including how and where you obtained the software, and (b) please give
away copies of this software to as many others as you can."

Jonathan