RC bugs for non-free data in main
I will start to fill bugs for packages containing data (sound, music,
images, textures, icons...) when its origin is not specified (see
below). Many of this bugs will be RC, because of legal issues; that is
the reason for asking first on this list.
I won't make an extensive search, but I will fill bugs anytime I found
by chance some of this:
1. Packages using unlicensed data when it is known they came from
non-free software will receive an RC bug. There appears to be several
of these, like games that rip data from other non-free commercial
games.
Example:
package: powermanga-data
file: /usr/share/games/powermanga/sounds/bonus4.wav
File has following strings: "Windows 95 Utopia Sound Scheme", "1995
Microsoft Corporation", "Utopia Question". Appears to be one of the
Windows standard sounds. It is non-free (and also non distributable at
all, not even on non-free section).
2. Packages using data from unknown sources sometimes will receive a
bug. Severity will vary depending of the case. If there are not reason
to think data is not original, it will be a whislist asking for
clarification of procedence of all works beside code. If there are
strong suspects that data comes from non-free sources, it may be an RC
bug.
Example:
package: chromium-data
Upstreams claims that music loops and raw sound effects were taken
from http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/ and http://www.findsounds.com/.
It is very likely for most of them to be non-free, as stated here:
http://www.findsounds.com/cpolicy.html
3. Packages using data taken from other free software should give
credits and point to the proper license for data, because sometimes
can be different than the one used for the program itself. Not as
critical as n.1, but it should be fixed anyways. Severity can be
relaxed in this case, I think.
This kind of problems are not new, they have been discussed before.
While we are more or less careful with code coming from unknown
places, it appears to me that we "turn a blind eye" on licensing other
data :-)
So, I'm sorry for growing up again the number of RC bugs, but I think
this is important to be fixed before etch release.
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