Re: License issue
Hi Mickaël,
what you need to do in the first place is to specify those parts of the
code which are not GPL inside the debian/copyright file. Once this is
listed it is possible to do some more detailed investigation (perhaps
by consulting debian-legal@l.d.o) whether
a) the whole code might go to main Debian
b) the code can be disrtibuted in non-free
c) the code can not be distributed at all
I personally do not see any chance to decide between these three options
just on the very general pieces of information you have given below.
Kind regards
Andreas.
On Wed, Jul 04, 2012 at 02:11:25PM +0200, Mickaël Canévet wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I have a program that says that "Most of the source code is available
> under the GPL License". I asked the author what does "most of" means and
> here is the answer (with his agreement):
>
> "When I shifted to GPL distribution there were a few routines that
> incorporated old code from government labs and early books on
> programming that were written before people thought about 'intellectual
> property rights' and '$$'. I am quite sure that the code in the cases
> that remain [...] is considered 'public domain' and is distributable but
> I can not claim that it can ever be distributed under GPL. So as far as
> I am concerned it can be used inside GPL code but it is 'not' GPL code.
> But I am not at all a legal expert!!!"
>
> What do you think of that ? Does it require further investigation ? Will
> we be able to add this soft to Debian (as soon as my package is
> finished) ?
>
> Cheers,
> Mickaël
--
http://fam-tille.de
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