Re: is the license of gsview okay?
From: David Starner <dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org>
Subject: Re: is the license of gsview okay?
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 20:05:23 -0600
> On Wed, Jan 31, 2001 at 10:18:45AM +0900, Atsuhito Kohda wrote:
> > I am interested in gsview which is famous in Windows users
> > and a kind of ghostview or gv. But I am not sure if its license
> > permits us to upload to Debian or not.
>
> Why do you want to package it? It's not like it fills a need that
> can't be filled with free software.
Well, it might be not so important but I guess that many
users of Windows now come and begin to use Linux so if they
find the same applications in Linux as in Windows they might
feel happy.
> > pstoedit is Copyright by Wolfgang Glunz and is licensed with
> > the GNU Public Licence (GPL). Binaries are included in
> > GSview with the permission of Wolfgang Glunz.
>
> Fine. (GPL is fine as long as it's not linked with non-GPL. This
> is a seperate binary, so it's all right.)
I am not sure yet but pstoedit might be NOT a separate binary,
at least, in case Linux/UNIX version. I will check it later.
> > (3) The Software may not be transferred to any third party
> > unless such third party receives a copy of this Agreement and agrees
> > to be bound by all of its terms and conditions.
>
> This is the only part that seems non-free. If I read this right, it's
> a restriction on distribution Debian can't satisfy even in non-free; we
> would have to make sure anyone we distributed to agreed before we gave
> them a copy.
Then, at installation with preinst, one can ask a user
if you agree all terms and conditions of pstotext's license?
and if a user selects 'Yes' then install gsview otherwise
aborts to install. But this seems to be insufficient...
Thanks for your clarification and I will welcome any comments
and/or suggestions.
Regards,
--
Debian JP Developer - much more I18N of Debian
Atsuhito Kohda <kohda@pm.tokushima-u.ac.jp>
Department of Math., Tokushima Univ.
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