Re: license question and problems
Hi Hussain,
On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 04:18:38PM +0100, Muhammad Hussain Yusuf wrote:
> Hi,
> I have an ITP for a program (gdis, which is GPL) which requires another
> program (babel) whose license is a bit vague, at least to me.
> I intend to create binary for babel from the babel source in a sub
> directory of my package.
Why don't you package babel in an extra *.deb and you gdis in another
one? Is there any special reason for the merging you intend?
> The license for babel is:
>
>
> This software is provided on an "as is" basis, and without warranty of
> any kind, including but not limited to any implied warranty of
> merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
>
> In no event shall the authors or the University of Arizona be liable for
> any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages
> arising from use or distribution of this software. The University of Arizona
> also shall not be liable for any claim against any user of this program by
> any third party.
>
> (That's it!)
First of all, IANDD and IANAL, but here we go anyway...
> My questions are:
>
> 1) Is the above license OK for Debian?
It cannot go into main, because it doesn't explicitely allow
modification (among others)... It can't go into contrib either, for the
same reason.
And, yes, the license is really quite vague...
It doesn't even explicitely allow redistribution, so it probably cannot
go into non-free either (?)
IT says "[...] use or distribution of this software."
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I doubt that this is an explicit permission to distribute the software,
but I'm not sure, here.
> 2) If so, is it OK to go ahead if I do not get a reply from the authors?
Depends. If you put it into non-free it's OK, I guess...
(Only if it's allowed to go into non-free, of course)
> 3) The new gdis package also depends on the Debian povray package, which is
> in non-free: I assume that my gdis package will therefore also have to go
> in non-free?
If your package could otherwise go into main, but depends on something
in non-free or in contrib, your package must go into contrib...
(CC'ed debian-devel, that's where it belongs to...)
HTH, Uwe.
--
:---------------- Uwe Hermann <uh1763@hermann-uwe.de> ---------------:
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