Re: pdf files in upstream tarball and -doc package
Miriam Ruiz <little_miry@yahoo.es> wrote:
> So if you only have PDF file, you wouldn't include in
> the package, is it that? Even when it is the only doc
> available and it is free to be modified or
> redistributed?
Hm. In fact I *cannot* include it because it fails Clause 2 of the
DFSG. But if it may be freely modified and/or distributed, it seems that
the author wants it to be free. Therefore, I would approach him or her
and ask whether he doesn't want to release the real source code.
And if it turns out to be a proprietary format (which is quite unlikely
if the PDF comes along as the documentation for free software, but might
still occur), there's still the possibility to negotiate with the author
about a change in format. Or, as rumor goes, it might be possible to use
a converter from doc (or whatever) to some free format.
> I think it might be a different case with .doc files,
> which can be assumed to be the source code of the pdf,
> and sometimes can be imported correctly with open
> source tools (not always). So you have the source,
> even when you might not be able to exactly regenerate
> the pdf from it with open source tools.
That's right.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer
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