I'm concerned about the licensing of cdrkit[1,2] aka debburn, which
was recently forked from cdrecord.
The current license seems to be GPLv2 + additional restrictions which
IMHO is not right because GPLv2 doesn't allow any such additional
restrictions.
An example from libscg/scsi-linux-ata.c[3]:
<skip>
* Warning: you may change this source, but if you do that
* you need to change the _scg_version and _scg_auth* string below.
* You may not return "schily" for an SCG_AUTHOR request anymore.
* Choose your name instead of "schily" and make clear that the version
* string is related to a modified source.
<skip>
/*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2
* as published by the Free Software Foundation.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
* this program; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
*/
<skip>
/*
* If you changed this source, you are not allowed to
* return "schily" for the SCG_AUTHOR request.
*/
case SCG_AUTHOR:
return (_scg_auth_cdrkit);
case SCG_SCCS_ID:
return (ata_sccsid);
<skip>
An another example from cdrecord/cdrecord.c[4]:
/*
* Warning: you are not allowed to modify or to remove this
* version checking code!
*/
vers = scg_version(0, SCG_VERSION);
auth = scg_version(0, SCG_AUTHOR);
<SKIP over 20 lines of that code>
I mentioned this problem over a week ago[5] at debburn-devel but
didn't get any response.
Recently Nathanael Nerode mentioned this problem again[6] and Albert
Cahalan answered[7]:
On 9/12/06, Nathanael Nerode <neroden at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> (1) Merge changes made in dvdrtools. dvdrtools forked from an even
> earlier version of cdrtools, and all the additions are GPLv2-or-later.
>
> (dvdrtools is in non-free solely because of the libscg "You may not" lines,
which
> are *also* present in cdrkit. Um.... there's some small problem there.)
We need to make a choice right now:
a. delete those lines (Joerg#1 said the code was GPL anyway)
b. go back to a much older version
Unfortunately Eduard Bloch (one of the people behind this fork)
doesn't see any problem here[8]:
> (dvdrtools is in non-free solely because of the libscg "You may not" lines,
which
> are *also* present in cdrkit. Um.... there's some small problem there.)
If you see a concrete problem, point it out. Or stop talking like there
were a problem.
In my opinion there is clearly a concrete problem as there are
restrictions in the source-code which are not allowed by GPLv2.
So I'd now like to ask what debian-legal thinks about this situation,
and whether the license of cdrkit is OK for Debian-main.
[1] http://debburn.alioth.debian.org/
[2] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn
[3]
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn/nonameyet/trunk/libscg/scsi-linux-ata.c?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[4]
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn/nonameyet/trunk/cdrecord/cdrecord.c?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[5]
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000005.html
[6]
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000048.html
[7]
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000050.html
[8]
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000051.html
--
Markus Laire
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
