Re: MaintainerDatabase Copyright
Hi,
>>"Jim" == Jim Pick <jim@jimpick.com> writes:
Jim> Aw, come on! This is getting too silly. All the database is
Jim> supposed to be is a list of maintainers with some additional
Jim> information stored in a convenient place so it can be updated.
Jim> It doesn't need an elaborate license agreement.
I thought so too, initially, but people convinced me that one
can never be too paranoid ;-). So far, you make three against, versus
four for, the licence as it stands. I'd like to have a clearer view
of where people stand on this issue.
I also freely admit that the licence should be loosened a bit
to allow fair personal use of the data.
Jim> I only brought up the security and privacy issues in the first
Jim> place because I though it would also be convenient to collect the
Jim> information needed for maintainer verification at the same time
Jim> -- and I am sure that we need to know more for that purpose than
Jim> should be made publicly available. Of course, none of this
Jim> information has been collected as part of the survey so far; so
Jim> there aren't any _real_ security or privacy issues yet.
I would like to design for expansion. I'd like to get thsi
first version done, publish the first report (as an xearth
file), and then use the experince as a spring board for the other
fields in a more laborate developer database, possibly kept as a
postgrSQL databse.
Is the Debian keyring under the GPL?
Jim> Putting a non-free license on maintainer info released to the
Jim> public is silly -- because that means we cannot distribute it
Jim> inside a package in the main distribution.
Think about this calmly now. Is this a bad idea?
Jim> I was quite happy with the GPL.
But other people were not. Someone has to make a decision.
Jim> Actually, if we didn't have a license, this would automatically
Jim> be classified as non-copyright, public domain material anyways
Jim> because it is just a database gleaned from public sources (like
Jim> sports scores or telephone books).
Hmm, I'm not sure about that. Firstly, the location data is
not public data. Just an email list could well be, but people have
also given their ``real'' email addresses to the collection, as
opposed to their ``public'' email addresses. So, not all the data is
public information.
Secondly, anything without a copyright, in general, is not
public domain (as you well know).
I'm not a lwayer.
manoj
--
There is something you must understand about the Soviet system. They
have the ability to concentrate all their efforts on a given design,
and develop all components simultaneously, but sometimes without
proper testing. Then they end up with a technological disaster like
the Tu-144. In a technology race at the time, that aircraft was two
months ahead of the Concorde. Four Tu-144s were built; two have
crashed, and two are in museums. The Concorde has been flying safely
for over 10 years. Victor Belenko, MiG-25 fighter pilot who defected
in 1976 "Defense Electronics", Vol 20, No. 6, pg. 100
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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