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Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi Forum Raspbian 'PIXEL'  license agreement, Do you use it, have you read it? Are you concerned? (You should be)
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Raspbian 'PIXEL'  license agreement, Do you use it, have you read it? Are you concerned? (You should be)

rive
rive over 9 years ago

What good an open source software distribution that you can't legally redistribute because it has proprietary parts?

The whole advantage of free and open source is that I can just fire up as many copies of the operating system as I like, give it to friends, slice and dice it - and never worry!

"Redistributing" is very general. If I made an RPi disk image and handed it to a friend, this is certainly "redistributing".

 

This isn't like "all commercial rights reserved" which we all understand is reasonable.

 

A regular user opens themself up to be sued for perceived damages, if they so much as post a screenshot of their 'PIXEL' desktop. or if it is determined they so much as crop or edit the image(s), or resizes it to any size other than "long edge at 1920px".

 

You cannot use the desktop images if you are a commercial entity (because if you are selling/including Raspbian PIXEL in, or with your Pi product, you violate the PIXEL licensing terms).

 

You cannot redistribute them period, for any reason, commercial or not. You ( the end user) do not own them, you cannot do with them as you please or even share them (e.g, 'redistribution'), and (you the end user) cannot even use them yourself on your system/Pi/hardware after 10 years, (at which time you are no longer covered under the use license, and you must remove them if they are installed).

 

If you violate the use/licensing terms, you can be sued for significant damages. You indemnify the rights holder/owner/representative agent/authorized third party against any and all claims (in other words, if you get sued for unauthorized use of the images, you cannot counter-sue for monetary loss, attorney's fees, defamation, etc).

 

 

Source: /usr/share/pixel-wallpaper

 

license.txt

 

The photographer grants the Licensee the non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-

assignable use of all images named above for 10 years, for the purpose of use as the

default wallpaper included within the Raspbian operating system, distributed by the

Raspberry Pi Foundation. The licence is “digital only” and for medium resolution

(long edge at 1920px), images shall not be used in any other form (such as in print

publications) nor for any commercial activities. However, use of the images to promote

the operating system and the activities of the Foundation (such as on social media, on

blogs and printed at trade shows) is acceptable.

 

Provisions:

The photographer retains all copyrights attached to the images as well as any other

rights which may not be detailed in this agreement.

 

Selling and/or redistribution of the images is forbidden.

 

Licensee is allowed to crop and/or electronically alter images to suit their purposes

for the usage stated above.

 

Indemnity:

The Licensee indemnifies and holds harmless Greg Annandale against all claims,

liability, damages, costs and expenses stemming from a breach of this agreement,

the use of the images, your failure to abide by any restriction regarding the use

of an image, or any claim by a third party related to the use of the images.

Attachments:
license.txt.zip
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  • DAB
    0 DAB over 9 years ago

    This is a good example of how you need to understand licenses and their intent and context.

     

    Not being a lawyer, it is easy to be misled by the verbage, which has very precise legal meaning, but seems like unnecessary obfuscation to us poor engineers.

     

    Given the context about the photos used by the OS, the agreement sounds reasonable and only extends to the photos themselves, not the OS or its distribution.

     

    Copyright law is very explicit, I had to spend a lot of time with the lawyers as we reviewed software IP issues.

     

    The big limitation is that the law was written for an era when all such media was in print form, which was more easily to police and enforce.

     

    The digital age has made the ability of some people to exploit the works of others much easier to do and near impossible to find and prosecute.

     

    So we get statements like this all of the time.

     

    Bottom line, you are free to use the software and if it is declared Open Source, you can share it as long as you do not claim ownership.

     

    You can use the photos for your personal use without worry.

     

    DAB

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  • uscdadnyc
    0 uscdadnyc over 9 years ago in reply to DAB

    To DAB. Great Post(ing) BUT Again I take Issue w/ people who DO NOT post their Physical Location. UK, USA. NZ, Netherlands, Aussie-country, etc;

    IP (Intellectual Property) Laws vary w/ Nations. I as an US Patent Atty cannot comment w/o considering the Country we are talking about. Pls help me help You.

    USCDADNYC (NY NY USA)

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  • clem57
    0 clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to uscdadnyc

    For context only, DAB  is USA from profile and the pictures in question are UK location.

    Clem

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  • clem57
    0 clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to uscdadnyc

    For context only, DAB  is USA from profile and the pictures in question are UK location.

    Clem

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