Re: [pkg-kolab] license of schema files

[Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>]

Noèl Köthe wrote:
> "document itself may not be modified in any way" is the main point.
> The following are examples and more information. It looks like its
> just a copy of a RFC license e.g.
> ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2821.txt

The copyright statement prohibits changing the RFC document but you are 
allowed to take portions thereof "without restriction" for the purpose 
of implementing the specification contained in the document.  So you 
cannot ship a copy of rfc2821.txt in a DFSG-compliant package but you 
can extract and alter the schema contained therein.

Of course, there is an unidentifiable crossing point between taking a 
portion of the document for creating an implementation of the 
specification on the one hand, and taking the entire document on the 
other hand.  But it is in my mind completely beyond doubt that the case 
at hand here is on the former side.

If you are really unsure about it, you find someone who has never seen 
the schema in the RFC document and you give him a verbal description of 
the specification and have him write down a schema for it.  Then you 
are completely beyond the copyright claims of the RFC/IETF.