Re: Ghostscript Licence

[joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl (joost witteveen)]

> joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl (joost witteveen)  wrote on 21.03.96 in <[🔎] m0tzjRi-00010aC@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl>:
> 
> > If 3.53 should go into non-free, I guess I should release
> > 2.62 too (for the base system), and make the 3.53 package
> > replace 2.62.
> 
> I think we must do it that way, unfortunately. From the license, it seems  
> when you include even one non-free program on the CD, you have to  
> negotiate separately for the rights to include gs; that would be a  
> particular dangerous legal bomb anywhere except in non-free.

That's right -- but how big is the bomb? Clearly the INTEND
of Debian is to make everything on the CD freely copyable, so
I think Peter Deutsch will have a hard time if he finds somewhere
some not-completly-free programme .Also, he isn't very specific
about how free something should be, so I don't think he intends the
licence to read "if I find *somewhere* some non-free programme on the
CD, then your're gonna hang". I'll mail him to ask what about such
cases.

I don't mind taking the extra trouble of distributing 2.62 seperatly,
but I would like the extra trouble (both on my side, and on the users
side) to be worth it.

> Licenses like that one should be shot.

> > On another note, the 3.53 (and 2.62) versions of ghostscript
> > have no gif support (thanks, compuserve). Maybe that warrants
> > a 2.6.1-gif non-free release too? (I don't mean this too seriously).
> 
> <soapbox>
> 
> You misspelt "Unisys". 
Thanks, I never was very good at spelling!

> They are the patent holders. They are also the  
> reason why there is no longer a free compress program (that's the same  
> algorithm).

I always mess things up, sorry.

> Support PNG instead. It's a far more rational format, has some powerful  
> features GIF misses, uses the same free (and more effective) algorithm as  
> gzip, has been developed recently on the net, and is even endorsed by  
> Compuserve as a GIF replacement (well, they falsely claim to have invented  
> it, but what do you expect). And a RFC for PNG seems to be in the works  
> (ditto for LZ77, gzip, and zlib or whatever its current name is).

I know (Mosaic has PNG support too, now). However, the gs devs.mak
file says:

#   ****** NOTE: The PNG drivers DO NOT WORK YET.  DO NOT TRY TO USE THEM.
#       pngmono Monochrome Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
#       pnggray 8-bit gray Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
#       png16   4-bit color Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
#       png256  8-bit color Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
#       png16m  24-bit color Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
#       psmono  PostScript (Level 1) monochrome image
#       sgirgb  SGI RGB pixmap format
#       tiff24nc  TIFF 24-bit RGB, no compression (NeXT standard format)
#       tifflzw  TIFF LZW (tag = 5) (monochrome)
#       tiffpack  TIFF PackBits (tag = 32773) (monochrome)

So, we'll have to wait a bit (but, 3.60 has been released already,
I'll have to download that and check it).

-- 
joost witteveen
            joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl
          joostje@dds.hacktic.nl
--
Use Debian/GNU Linux!