copyright change question
There was a copyright problem with one of the small utilities included with
svgatextmode called vgaset. I've received the response from the author which
has been appended below. Basically, he says that you can take his email as
agreement to put vgaset under GPL. Is this enough or do I have to ask him to
release an official version with GPL as the license?
I know I've seen some packages that have email discussions appended in
copyright file, like this, but I don't know if that's the right way to do it.
Thanks.
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 09:41:57 +1030
From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To: Igor Grobman <igor@digicron.com>
Subject: Re: vgaset copyright problem
On Wed, 11 March 1998 at 7:04:48 -0500, Igor Grobman wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am the maintainer of SVGATextMode package for debian/GNU linux. Debian is a
> linux distribution developed by volunteers from all over the world. Please
> visit http://www.debian.org for more info.
>
> It was recently pointed out to me that the copyright of vgaset program, which
> is included in stm sources, is not free by debian definition, and I will
> therefore have to take it out of stm package. I am very reluctant to do this,
> because vgaset is useful for some, and because that would break my ability to
> generate the debian package from pristine upstream source. Here is the
> copyright that I have:
>
> This program may be used freely for non-commercial purposes. Source
> extracts should indicate the original copyright notice. In case of
> problems, please contact me.
>
> The problem with this copyright is that it prohibits commercial use. This is
> problematic, because debian is designed to be the base from which other
> (possibly commercial) products may grow. It is our goal to have only truly
> free programs in the main distribution. To see our free software guidelines,
> take a look at http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html The Free software
> guildelines section tells you what kind of copyrights we recommend using, and
> which restrictions are acceptable.
>
> Please let me know if you could change the copyright on vgaset.
Hmm. That shows how old it is, I suppose. I personally think it's
obsolete. If you want, though, take this as my agreement to put it
under the GPL.
Greg
------- End of Forwarded Message
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Proudly running Debian Linux! Linux vs. Windows is a no-Win situation....
Igor Grobman igor@debian.org igor@digicron.com
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