Re: MaintainerDatabase Copyright

[joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl (joost witteveen)]

>  How do we recncile the fact that the database it self shall *not* be
>  distributed at all, just reports are generated and distributed? Can
>  we use the GPL in that case? 

I'd say (I'm not a lawer, nor do I play one on TV, but I did once
read the GPL:) that would be no problem.

And we have an example to go by:

An executable built from several source files, some of which
are GPL, and others have whatever licence Motif has, is distributable
(just as Lyx, Motif-Emacs, Motif-Whatever are distributable).

Now, replace the GPL source files by the "free" database entries,
the Motif sourcefiles by the "non-modify" database entries, and
the compiler by whatever script generates the final Maintainers 
Database from the database entries.

I see a very clear analogy there.



BTW, usually, a static Motif-Emacs binary is built in two steps: 
the motif sourcecode is compiled on the Motif sales' person's computer,
who sells the object code to someone who then builds the emacs part
of the binary, and finally links it with the Motif object code.

But there's no reason this two-step process makes any difference
licence-wise, and, even if it did, we can always copy the two
steps by running the scripts on different computers :).


-- 
joost witteveen, joostje@debian.org
#!/usr/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
$/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
#what's this? see http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/


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