Dear maintainer,

package virtualbox-guest-additions-iso is currently in Debian non-free
repository. I believe this is might be a mistake.

Copyright file [1] of the package is saying
distribution, because § 2 (2) of the VirtualBox PUEL license only allows
the redistribution of "unmodified copies of the ISO installation
medium", but not the source code.


Putting the following term into search engines:

"unmodified copies of the ISO installation medium"

shows only years old search results.

The VirtualBox licensing FAQ [2] does not mention the ISO. It only
mentions the VirtualBox Extension Pack being under nonfree license
Extension Pack Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL) [3].

[3] does not mention any ISO either.

Editions page [4] stating:
binary containing all features and an "Open Source Edition" (OSE) with
source code. With version 4.0, there is only one version any more, which
is open source, and the closed-source components have been moved to a
separate extension pack.


When installing from guest using guest additions ISO, there is no PUEL
license prompt either.

Source code organization page [5] mentions:
possibly more in the future); this is code that must be installed within
a guest to optimize its performance and usability. The build system
compiles this code into an ISO file that can be mounted as a VM's
virtual CD-ROM drive, as described in the user manual.


The VirtualBox guest additions source tree is apparently part of OSE.
Therefore the build result should also be under OSE.

VirtualBox extension pack source code was as far as I know never visible
to the general public. Therefore reviewing the situation with today's
knowledge, I wouldn't know why virtualbox-guest-additions-iso should be
considered being under non-free PUEL license.

I've also asked in the VirtualBox forums. [6]

Could you therefore please kindly consider to move
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso from non-free to contrib?

Cheers,
Patrick

[1]
https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//non-free/v/virtualbox-guest-additions-iso/virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.8-1_copyright

[2] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ

[3] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL

[4] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions

[5] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Source_code_organization

[6]
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=21374&p=477656#p477656

Asked about this on VirtualBox issue tracker.

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19751

Answered by arudnev, Oracle Corporation:


Therefore should be safe to conclude that VirtualBox Guest Additions ISO
is Open Source.

Please move virtualbox-guest-additions-iso from non-free to contrib.

Any update?

control: tags -1 wontfix


2.2.2. The contrib archive area

The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution, but which require software outside of the distribution to either build or function.

Every package in contrib must comply with the DFSG.

In addition, the packages in contrib

     must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them, and

     must meet all policy requirements presented in this manual.

Examples of packages which would be included in contrib are:

     free packages which require contrib, non-free packages or packages which are not in our archive at all for compilation or execution, and

     wrapper packages or other sorts of free accessories for non-free programs.


This is unfortunately still the case. The iso contains code built for windows and macosx and we can't recompile them from source.

The fact that the iso file is GPL, doesn't mean the unpacked content is DFSG.

G.