RHTVision and SETEdit, non-free? are they distributable at all? Anything that can be done about?
Hello.
First of all I want to explain what RHTVision and SETEdit are,
RHTVision is a TUI (Text User Interface) library, SETEdit is a feature
rich text editor that uses the RHTVision library.
The RHTVision library source code is based from the source code of the
Turbo Vision library made long time ago by Borland Corporation, now
Inprise.
RHTVision is really the Borland code but heavily modified with various
enhancenments and some bugfixes. Ported to the GNU/DJGPP platform and
more recently to GNU/Linux.
Now on the legal issues.
This is part of the readme.txt file that comes with RHTVision:
------------------------Readme.txt--------------------------------
The sources are copyrighted by Borland (currently Inprise) and are
freely
available in internet from:
ftp://ftp.inprise.com/pub/borlandcpp/devsupport/archive/turbovision/tv.zip
Look in the borland.txt file for more information. Additionally here
is
what Inprise says about this package:
URL: http://www.inprise.com/devsupport/bcppbuilder/faq/QNA906.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question and Answer Database
QNA :Turbo Vision
Category :C/C++ Language Issues
Platform :Windows95
Product :C++Builder ALL
Question:
Where can I find the public domain version of Turbo Vision?
Answer:
It can be found at
ftp.inprise.com/pub/borlandcpp/devsupport/archive/turbovision/
the turbo vision libraries are in the tv.zip archve, the rest of the
files are examples.
7/2/1998 10:32:32 AM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So according to Inprise web tv.zip is a Public Domain version.
<Clarification>
I added this small text because some people have doubts about
copyrights
issues.
</Clarification>
They were heavily patched to work with gcc. Some patches fixes bugs,
others
changes the behavior of things limited to 16 bits values, the resulting
TV isn't 100% compatible with the original. See the examples/porting.txt
file for more information, I explain which differences I found while
porting
the examples found there.
Up to release 1.0.1 most of the patches were made by Robert Hoehne. I
contributed with various patches and modules mainly to extend the
original
functionality. For information about what changed before it just read
the
change.log file.
The library is distributed under the GPL license, it seems to be OK
because
according to a FAQ in the Inprise web site the base library is Public
Domain. The file copying contains the GPL license and the file
copying.rh
contains the RHIDE copyright.
------------------------End of
Readme.txt--------------------------------
The borland.txt file only has a disclaimer and limitation of liability.
The sources say this:
/*
* Turbo Vision - Version 2.0
*
* Copyright (c) 1994 by Borland International
* All Rights Reserved.
*
*/
Richard Stallman has mailed to Inprise to see if they had decided to
make the Turbo Vision library free software and they said that didn't
yet and that they doubt they will do it in the future.
Then Richard Stallman talked with a lawyer and it said that the Turbo
Vision code cannot be used.
I am Ivan Baldo <lubaldo@adinet.com.uy>, waiting to be a Debian
maintainer and have debianized the RHTVision library and the SET's
Editor.
Carlos Barros <cbf@redlider.com.uy> is my sponsor.
Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET) <salvador@inti.gov.ar> is the current
maintainer of RHTVision and SETEdit.
I would like to know what to do with this packages: move the rhtvision
library to non-free and the editor to contrib or the rhtvision package
cannot be distributed and so we have to remove it from the Debian
archives.
Also I would like to know if Debian or somebody else can do something
to help solve this problem and what are your suggestions for course of
action or whatever.
Please, take in count that the RHTVision library is being developed
without stop since 4 years now and some really good programs depend on
it. There is lot of freeware work put in it and in the programs related
to it.
Ok, thanks for all your help and all your comments. Goodbye.
P.s.: we are not on the debian-legal mailing list, please, send a copy
of all the answers to us.
P.s.2: currently the RHTVision and SETEdit packages are on main!
--
Ivan Baldo:
lubaldo@adinet.com.uy - http://members.xoom.com/baldo - ICQ 10215364
Phone: (598) (2) 613 3223.
Caldas 1781, Malvin, Montevideo, Uruguay, South America.
(If you have problems with the previous addresses, try this ones:
ibaldo@usa.net, http://baldo.home.ml.org).
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