On Sat, Dec 09, 2000 at 07:24:23PM -0800, Aaron Lehmann wrote: > > http://cr.yp.to/softwarelaw.html, and it basically says that rights to > run or modify the software, but not distribute patches to it. This might > be acceptable for non-free, except that debian packaging is basically > a patch. I think you're misinterpreting the page on which you base your conclusion that it's not OK to distribute hx. The page reads (in part): Note that, since it's not copyright infringement for you to apply a patch, it's also not copyright infringement for someone to give you a patch. For example, Galoob's Game Genie, which patches the software in Nintendo cartridges, does not infringe Nintendo's copyrights. `Having paid Nintendo a fair return, the consumer may experiment with the product and create new variations of play, for personal enjoyment, without creating a derivative work.'' Galoob v. Nintendo, 780 F. Supp 1283 (N.D. Cal. 1991), affirmed, 22 U.S.P.Q.2d 1587 (9th Cir. 1992). See also Foresight v. Pfortmiller, 719 F. Supp 1006 (D. Kan. 1989). Distributing a context-free patch like what's produced by diff -C 0 or like what's contained in the Galoob Game Genie is not copyright infringement. Even the act of including context such as is present in a normal context diff could be considered a fair use of the copyrighted original work. > I think the same issues apply for qmail, but do not know what descision > was arrived at with that particular package. > Since the binaries created by compiling a source tree with patches applied are a derived work of both the original code and the patches, distribution of binaries must be permitted by the copyright holders for both the patch and the original source code tree. Since the copyright holder for qmail does not permit binaries to be distributed except under very limited circumstances, we distribute the qmail source only and a patch in non-free. Note that in order to put the unmodified source in non-free, the copyright holder must have at least given permission to distribute unmodified copies. -- Brian Ristuccia brian@ristuccia.com bristucc@cs.uml.edu
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