On Mon, Oct 16, 2000 at 04:37:53PM -0300, Nicol?s Lichtmaier wrote:
> > The New Maintainer's Guide specifically states
> > "you should contact program's author(s) to check if they agree with
> > packaging it."
> >
> > For me, checking if the upstream author agrees is like asking for
> > permission.
>
> Well.. that guide is wrong... It implies that the author has more rights
> than he really has (like when wget's author tried to force me to ship it
> without a manpage). A simple acknowledgement is polite enough...
It's not a question of rights; it's a question of courtesy. I'd
also point out that he didn't try to force you to ship it without a
manpage; he got upset because you were shipping it with an obsolete
manpage.
Generally, it's not an issue. However, if you're going to be
packaging something in early beta or alpha stages or such, sometimes
the author would prefer that there not be widespread distribution
until the work is farther along, or other such circumstances, and in
general it's probably The Right Thing to honor any such requests
should they come up.
--
Zed Pobre <zed@debian.org> a.k.a. Zed Pobre <zed@resonant.org>
PGP key and fingerprint available on finger; encrypted mail welcomed.
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